History of the diesel car Its 1.3 L XL4D engine produces at 5,000 rpm. Following the 1970s oil crisis (1973 and 1979), Volkswagen introduced their first diesel, the VW Golf, with a 1.5 L naturally aspirated indirect-injection engine which was a redesigned (dieselised) version of a gasoline engine. Mercedes-Benz tested turbodiesels in cars (e.g. by the Mercedes-Benz C111 experimental and record-setting vehicles) and the first production turbo diesel cars were, in 1978, the 3.0 5-cylinder 115 hp (86 kW) Mercedes 300 SD, available only in North America, and the Peugeot 604. The biggest single step forward for mass-market diesel cars came in 1982 when PSA
Ralston Steel Car Company and was producing 25 to 30 cars per day, and as many as 40 per day was possible. After the war, however, demand for new freight cars plunged, since so many had been built during the war. Ralston was unable to ride out the slowdown and shut its doors in 1953. Ralston Steel Car Company The Ralston Steel Car Company operated in Columbus, Ohio, from 1905-1953. The company began by modifying wood freight cars to add steel underframes. Later it manufactured its own line of all-steel rail cars. Joseph S. Ralston and Anton Becker founded the Ralston Steel Car Company