If car makers can make powerful turbodiesel engines as light as their petrol counterparts and able to produce meaningful urge at 5500 rpm before hitting the limit of the rev range, then diesels will be on their way to becoming sporting engines of note. Pity the poor manual transmissions that will need to cope with all of that torque mind you...

...oh but wait, manual transmissions are no longer mandatory inclusions in modern sporting automobiles. [:sigh:]