Z28Marcus

I know some folks here don't care; so note I said *option* in the title; I didn't start this thread for people to argue about ethanol / E85 etc and whether or not it provides benefits. I just want to let GM know that I would dearly like to have the option to use E85 (with an octane rating north of 106) in my next Camaro. BTW pure Ethanol is rated around 113 Octane and supposedly will be used by the Indy (yawn) Racing League in 07). The new Impala and Monte Carlo have the option in to run E85 as do many of GM's trucks and SUVs...

http://www.e85fuel.com/information/general_motors.php

So why not the next Camaro? 106+ Octane E85, a 6.0L v8 and a supercharger or twin turbos go hand in hand with big juicy dripping slabs of power .

Coupled with the intelligent fuel management feature, such a car will be all the more practical - one of the original selling points of the original Camaro.

RhinoSS

Do you know the BTU density of E85 compared to that of gasoline?
Octane won't do a bit of good if the fuel doesn't have the BTU's to back it up.

Z28Marcus

E85 is woth about 80% BTUs of gasolene. So you need to flow a bit more to compensate. MPG goes down ~ 20% vs gasolene but the cost per gallon is less (currently). Ethanol was $1.95 a gallon last time I looked a week ago at the Cenex down the road from me. That's premo 106 octane fuel. 91 Octane gasolene is $2.59. Ok, so right now it's a toss up in actual terms of $ / mile. Who knows what the future will hold?

Just the facts as they stand now... I'm not wanting to have a big discussion or argument, either you're interested in alterantives or you're not. I would like the option on my next Camaro if GM is willing to offer it.

Bottom line with a flex fuel vehicle: you can still fill up with regular gasolene, but why not have the option to choose normal unleaded gasolene or E85 depending on what is cheaper at the time?

http://www.ethanal.org

gmanss

we at the post office used to use the e85 fuel. Fuel economy goes way down, more expensive, and after a while its off to get repaired. messes up a sensor, not sure which one , but its by the throttle intake. Then again our trucks are FORDS.

greg_nate

What an excellent request. I competely agree. Especially at this point in our energy situation - the price of oil being expected to only rise. We should have the choice.

FYI, if you're interested, I'll post a link to dyno runs of different ethanol mixtures. All GM flex fuel vehicles dyno'd more power, the higher the ethanol percentage. Ford's vehicles fared similarly, but not quite as well as GM. Toyota's flex fuel vehics however, didn't fare so well...they lost HP with the addition of ethanol.

I think the American manufactures have the better technology in this area. There are daily announcements of ethanol plants coming online. We're expected to more than double production this year in this country...there is lots of investement money flowing into ethanol and all biofuels. Bottom line is, we're going to be seeing more and more in the near future.

meissen

Oye, I hope not. E85 has a good idea in the future, but right now the places in michigan charge more for E85 than regular gas.

jg95z28

Ethanol isn't what its cracked up to be. I'd much rather have DoD or Fuel Management or whatever they are calling it this year and run on traditional gasoline with half the cylinders turned off.

Aaron91RS

I can say from personal experiance that a 99 Ford Ranger FFV rattles horribly using regular gas since the timing and compression needed to get e85 to work effectively is so different then regular octane.
I don't care if it's offered. But I don't know if they can balance a PERFORMANCE car to run well on both.

DOD is a MUCH better idea.