Filed under: Porsche
Video: Jeremy Clarkson says Porsche 911 Turbo cleans LA's air
In the video above, Jeremy Clarkson, host of Top Gear, says the Porsche 911 Turbo cleans the air in polluted cities like LA. While, I have seen concept cars that can clean the air, I seriously doubt any existing car, especially the Porsche 911 Turbo, emits exhaust that is cleaner than air, even air in the most polluted cities. Here is exactly what Clarkson says:
When you drive this car through a really polluted city; Los Angeles, Calcutta, Harrogate(?), something like that; the gas coming out of the exhaust pipe is less toxic than the air going into the engine. And I am not joking, that's true. This then is like a small, efficient, easy to use vacuum cleaner. They should have called it the Porsche Dyson.
So, here's the question for a Sunday afternoon. What do you think? Is he wrong or does he have a definition of toxic that I don't understand?
[Source: YouTube]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
BlackbirdHighway 4:23PM (11/11/2007)
Well, I know an easy way to settle it. Let's just hook up the tailpipe to a facemask, and let Jeremy Clarkson wear it for oh, say 20 to 30 miutes.
If he is still alive, then yes, I will agree with his stupid statement. If he isn't, well then we have one less idiot in the world.
Reply
Turbofrog 4:43PM (11/11/2007)
I could certainly see that for some emissions the conversion efficiency of the automotive catalysts could be so high as to remove existing contaminants.
I know that there have been vehicles in the past with catalytic-coatings on their radiators to convert ground-level ozone, for example.
Clarkson can be an ignorant blowhard at times, but he may not be completely wrong in this instance.
Reply
BlackbirdHighway 4:46PM (11/11/2007)
Oh, and also the Tesla accelerates faster, and if it had a tailpipe, I would volunteer to try the tailpipe facemask test with it.
Reply
BlackbirdHighway 4:56PM (11/11/2007)
Exhaust CO2% rates of modern gasoline motors varies between 9.9% to 15%.
The current threshold limit value (TLV) or maximum level that is considered safe for healthy adults for an eight-hour work day is 0.5% (Wikipedia).
The air going in is 0.0375 % CO2.
So the are coming out is about 270 times more toxic than the air going in, and about 20 times more toxic than what is considered safe to breathe.
Reply
Matt 5:02PM (11/11/2007)
Harrogate certainly is toxic, in all senses of the word.
I think he may have been referring to the amount of unburnt hydrocarbons or something.
Reply
soma 5:19PM (11/11/2007)
Auto manufacturers have been intermittently making this claim since at least 1976 (Volvo, when they introduced the first production vehicle with an oxygen sensor). But even if one ignores the production of greenhouse gases, and focuses only on toxics, it's not true. Sorry.
Reply
Turbofrog 5:23PM (11/11/2007)
The question is, Blackbird, would you be willing to suck on the chimneys of all those coal burning plants that will be providing the electricity for the vast majority of Teslas?
Reply
dygituljunky 5:31PM (11/11/2007)
Considering that Clarkson has pistons for lungs and oil in his veins, the air coming out of the Porsche or any other vehicle probably IS cleaner ... to him.
Reply
why not the LS2LS7? 6:01PM (11/11/2007)
It's not true.
For the lowest emissions vehicles (SULEV), air coming out of the tailpipe can have less trace pollutants than the air going in. But it still has more of the direct emissions of combustion than the air going in.
Note that the Porsche 911 is not in the lowest emissions tier. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's in the highest group. fueleconomy.gov puts it as a 6/10, which for CARB I believe means it's a LEV II, which is the same as tier 2, bin 5, the most polluting category allowed in CARB areas.
Reply
SuperQ 8:54PM (11/11/2007)
Yes, the CO2 is only part of what is polluting. Current emission regulations have NOTHING to do with CO2. The regulate the ammount of CO, NOx, and VOC/Particulate emissions. Modern emission control systems take care of most of these, leaving very little "bad" stuff behind. This is good because most of what comes out of the tailpipe is H2O, CO2, and N2. The problem is you have to warm up the car's engine to get this process to happen. Cold engine starts (first few min of driving) produce LOTS of nasty incomplete reactions that are bad for air quality. This is why you have to warm up your car for a bit before taking it to get a smog check.
This is why I think Plug-In hybrid is the best option (besides all electric). If you can atleast get to work one-way on electric only, that reduces one cold start that needs to happen per day. This would go a long way to improving air quality.
Really, all these regulations are not "for the environment". They're just there to keep "air quality" within an acceptable level.
Reply
Kardax 9:59PM (11/11/2007)
Wow, nobody gets it. It's a joke, people.
When Jeremy Clarkson says "I'm not joking", he usually is.
Reply
phoenexius 8:49AM (11/12/2007)
saab performed the feat of "cleaning" the air years ago
http://www.trollhattansaab.net/archives/2006/01/google_video_sa.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7091492525320672012
Reply
ug 1:17PM (11/12/2007)
I can't wait until gas is $10+ a gallon. That will wipe the smug right off Clarkson and every other I.C.E.-lover's face.
Reply
Lascelles Linton 1:30PM (11/12/2007)
Phoenexius, That's pretty cool :D
Reply
Joseph 3:53PM (11/12/2007)
This man obviously knows very little.
The Porsche 911 is given a 6 rating for emmisions from fueleconomy.gov
Cars, like the Honda Civic NGV, are SUPPOSED to be so clean that the stuff coming out is cleaner than the stuff coming in. (I kind of doubt how true that is.) Anywho, the Civic NGV is given a 9 rating on emmisions. Therefore, there is no way on earth that what he is saying can be true.
Reply
Matt 4:14PM (11/12/2007)
"I can't wait until gas is $10+ a gallon. That will wipe the smug right off Clarkson and every other I.C.E.-lover's face."
In the UK its £4.68 for a gallon of petrol. Thats $9.85. Everyone still drives their cars just as much as before.
Reply
Cassio 4:21PM (11/13/2007)
obviously you guys don't know clarkson, don't know sarcasm, don't know british humor, and (some of you) don't know there's a big, and much nicer world, outside america
Reply
Damien 9:04PM (11/16/2007)
Thee is a car that scrubs the air. It's MDI Air Car
http://www.theaircar.com/
Damien Somerset
http://www.zaproot.com/
Reply
HVK 3:56AM (11/19/2007)
Agree with cassio. some ppl are way of target.
If you knew Clarkson or had a sense of humour you'd have a clue. Stop trawling the Net for quotes on emmissions and develop a personality
Reply
Steve 10:04PM (1/22/2008)
The primary things that distinguish the emissions tier for light-duty vehicles are how fast the catalyst lights-off on a cold engine and the evaporative emissions. Once the three-way catalyst is lit-off on a newer model vehicle, the tailpipe emissions are very, very low. It is very possible that the tailpipe emissions of "toxic" compounds (other than CO2) are lower than the intake air. You could not live long breathing tailpipe gasses due to CO2.
Reply