V8 Supercars plans switch to ethanol fuel for next year’s season | Motorsport

Home

News

V8 Supercars plans switch to ethanol fuel for next year’s season

Written by Carl Jameson

Monday, 21 July 2008

Sweeping changes to next year’s V8 Supercars series were announced over the weekend and include a decision to switch to 85% ethanol-blended fuel as well as the introduction of a shortened race calendar. V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane confirmed the changes, which he hopes will help in the promotion of alternative fuels and make the series more exciting.

Shorter season, night race and new venue planned
The list of changes include a 38 week race calendar instead of the current 42, with all 14 rounds and the Australian GP exhibition event set to remain in the shortened period. Cochrane said a decision on whether the Sydney Olympic Park site will replace Oran Park next year is still underdetermined and will likely be made next week.

Other changes planned for the series will be announced by September. These are expected to consist of several format changes, including scrapping the compulsory pit stop window and revamping the three-race sprint format. Also under discussion is the possibility of a new night race.

In an attempt to freeze ticket prices, V8 Supercars will not increase fees charged to promoters next year as earlier planned.

Switch to 'E85' ethanol-blended fuel confirmed
All cars in the main V8 series as well as the Fujitsu Development Series will run on a mix of ethanol and petrol. The new fuel, dubbed E85, features a mix of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol - the renewable ethanol content sourced from sugar cane.

While the green fuel is still not readily available for Australian motorists, and the number of vehicles with engines designed to run on it equally rare, Cochrane believes the switch in V8 Supercars to E85 could help promote the benefits of the fuel and help encourage its acceptance by motorists and speed-up its roll out.

The burning of ethanol has the positive side effect of cooling the combustion chambers, improving efficiency and reducing emissions. The fuel also has a higher octane rating.

"We want to be a leader in the area of emissions and renewable resources - we don't want to be a follower," said Cochrane. "Our job is educational. We want to show if we can run it in our cars, maybe it's a consideration for the average motorist. Petrol is going to keep going up, E85 petrol pumps will become a lot more common throughout Australia, and a lot more cars and manufacturers are going to be out there offering an E85 power plant."

Next year’s season will return to a March start date, with the Clipsal 500 leg confirmed as the opening event. If given the green light, the Sydney Olympic Park street race is expected to become the final event on the calendar.

Related Stories

Comments (1) Add Comment

Cornholer, July 22, 2008 | 21:23

GM 's sudden stewardship of the environment is simply a way to continue to make gas guzzlers thanks to E85 an extremely inefficient fuel. The CAFE standards call for all car companies to achieve an average MPG for all vehicles. I believe the most recent number is 27 MPG. Well if you make the biggest money off of 10 miles per gallon SUV's you would hate to say good bye to them wouldn't you?
The CAFE standards has a loophole, that being that an E85 vehicle operating on E85 miles per gallon are ONLY figured against the actual amount of gasoline in the blend (15%) if you divide 100% fuel by 15% gasoline you get the multiplier to the mpg (666) therefore a gas guzzling 10 MPG SUV is given credit for 66.6 MPG. If you sell one SUV like this you can have 5 vehicles only achieving 20 MPG and this gas guzzling SUV and you average more than 27 MPG overall while not one of their vehicles really met the standard.
GM is not the only one taking advantage of this free ride Ford and Chrysler are too. The big three are heading down the toilet and this is just their hands clinging to the rim.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

Write comment