Attracting new people to racing

[Ram4x4]

Alcohol fuels vs gasoline, in addition to the great info on caloric values also comes down to the stoichiometry. Gasoline stoichiometric values are 14.7:1, meaning 14.7 parts air to 1 part gasoline for optimum combustion.

Ethanol is 9:1, and methanol is 6.47:1.

In other words, you can stuff more alcohol into the charge at ambient pressure (naturally aspirated). The effects are realized even more when using forced induction.

This is why top fuel dragsters are making 11,000 HP with only a 500 cubic inch motor. Nitro methane, while also having less BTU than equal volume of gasoline (gasoline has 18,400 BTU/lb, nitro is only 5,000 BTU/lb) has a stoichiometric value of 1.7:1 !! That means they can stuff a little over 8.5 times as much nitro per charge than gasoline. Using that stoichiometric value, you can burn the equivalent of 43,000 BTU of nitro to gasoline's 18,400. Add forced induction to increase amount of air, you can then use even more nitro per charge and the difference is even greater. Lots more HP!

Several of the auto manufacturers are making "flex fuel" vehicles that allow you to run E85. I know the Chevy 5.3 liter engine stock on gasoline is rated at 355 HP. Run E85 in it and it is rated at 380HP, but the kicker is, your mileage suffers too because it's drinking more of the corn fuel due to the stoichiometry.

[Ram4x4]

Running 10-15% ethanol gasoline will only serve to lose a small amount of power and gain the associated issues with ethanol based fuels. Alcohol is hygroscopic (it absorbs water), which will cause rust and corrosion internally. It's also detrimental to certain rubbers and plastics.

Ethanol was put into gasoline only as a replacement for tetraethyllead to boost octane rating and provides no performance increases in terms of power (it actually takes some away).

While ethanol-free gas isn't everywhere, there are websites that list all the stations in the country that sell it. It's not too horribly difficult to get. It is more expensive, but the amount we use in a race weekend isn't enough to make the price difference an issue, at least in my personal opinion. Your circumstances might be different.

[runabout333]

The point of this thread was " attracting new people to boat racing". Do not hi-jack it about your opinion of fuel.

[Ram4x4]

Oh, sorry, didn't realize we had forum police.

[hoosier]

Can't you PLEASE follow the rules for once in your life , stop being such a renegade .

[runabout333]

Yes, we do.. Be kind to Grandpa racer.

[Ram4x4]

We've been running driver school for a while. Dave Deck has been practically a one-man show and he was even inducted into the Hall of Fame for Sportsmanship for all his hard work. Recently I've been trying to help him as his "Assistant Instructor" helping to set up and doing some of the driving for "Race the Instructor" (Dave had knee surgery a while back and it's hard for him to cover a full class and race on the weekend). We typically limit class to 10 students as we like to offer testing in the afternoon after Driver School, so we get kind of the best of both worlds; students and testing at our races.

MHRA also has a school and they've done good with it too. Dave was using his boat and motor for a long time for the students, but recently we've started to acquire some school equipment, enough that we're now starting to look at a trailer and a place to store it. Just this past race in Kittanning we had an A hydro and a pair of OMC's donated and we were able to put one young lady out in an AX set up, also had one J driver (we managed to get the use of a J hydro for that). Jeff Sherwin let us use his 300 motor on Dave's Tec-Craft for the adults. We do have a Y-80 that needs some work and once that's running will become the adult school motor.

Next weekend at Lock Haven we're doing another school for DVORA (not sure the head count yet for that one though). Overall, it's been fairly successful in getting new drivers.

I think clubs running schools should talk and see if we can get some statistics has to ow many new racers we get out of the schools over all, that would be good to see.

[runabout333]

Now you're cookin'.' Get the new guy up and running,,,,,, then talk fuel/oil mixture over a beer as a productive B/S session.

[Ram4x4]

Yeah, sorry, that was a little snippy of me, I apologize.

[runabout333]

My opinion,, go after the baby boomers,,, as they have the $$$$$$$. If they don't want to race,, then maybe they will finance the kids or the grandkids. I had the privilege of being in the Seattle area this summer and the guys working there at the hydroplane museum had nothing but good things to say about SOA and their build-a-boat J program. I'm done,, said enough. Keep the minds churnin'!!