Re: Fuel

Posted by su8overdrive On 2012/5/4 22:55:56

I'm with Dr. Dyneto on corn-produced ethanol. Monumental waste of land, resources, water, not including the Virginia-sized "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico devoid of any life where the Mississippi dumps heartland petrochem herbicides, fungicides, fertilizer, pesticides.

Gasoline has higher BTUs than any fuel, more bang for the drop. But ethanol's with us, so it's good to know what materials are compatible.

Off the subject, perhaps, but Henry Ford originally intended his Model T and Fordson tractor, comprising fully
half the nation's, and world's, automobiles and tractors, to run on agwaste ethanol, as Brazil wisely uses today. But at the time, John D. Rockefeller controlled 90% of all US bulk oil transport, so with gasoline prices as low as a dime a gallon, Ford followed suit, despite believing it was "....folly to burn petroleum. It makes a great lubricant."

Had Henry pervailed, GM, Reo, Nash, Hudson, Packard, the Dodge Brothers and the entire industry likely would've followed.

I've heard veteran engineers say a given i.c. engine runs "sweeter" on alcohol than gasoline. And the entire Indy 500 field runs on methanol, which is vile stuff.

We should welcome any and all alternative fuel cars so there's some gas left for those of us who really need it.

I couldn't care less what powers what we drive to the grocery store. The overarching threat to us all, and our cars, is overpopulation, but that's a juggernaut decidedly off topic. Had we stablilized national population at around 140-150 million, where it was during the 1940s, as many scientists urged and urge, we could all relax, and the steam buffs among us still enjoy a restored "Hudson."

Like the late publisher of Hemmings Motor News, Terry Ehrich, I'm a card-carrying environmentalist. What's a better example of reduce/reuse/recycle than rejuvenating and driving judiciously a Packard? Go easy on the EPA. Like any bureaucracy, they've blundered. But on balance, as someone who recalls LA smog in the mid '50s, greater NYC and Boston in the '60s, and the cesspool the beautiful Hudson River became, the EPA helps us all breathe a whole lot easier.

Some of us are also in favor of turning on the tap and having clean water, since if there's anything dumber or more wasteful of energy, resources than bottled water, we've yet to hear of it.

But, yeah, corn ethanol is for the birds. Corn is for popping while we watch the Packards in 1942's Tracy/Hepburn Keeper of the Flame.