NOT so Green

ACK!!!

What in the HELL is wrong with our BLEEPING Government in Washington DC. Oh Never Mind!!!

But the Sheis-kamfs at the EPA just struck down California’s request for its annual emissions waiver; you know the one that restricts the amounts of those nasty, nauseous, toxic fumes exiting tailpipes…

And I’m quite aware of the irony of going “Green;” Fuel economy vs. Motorsports, yet I fail to understand why there cannot be a balance of responsible, positive changes towards a cleaner environment.

Just note how almost all major racing series are turning “Green” with some sort of initiatives towards this global concern. To date the quickest fix has been the changing of petroleum products to the much vaunted Corn fed Ethanol, with Indy Car running a “100%” mixture; the ALMS has switched to a 50% ethanol blend, while the A1 GP will begin racing with a 30% sugar beet blend at its next round in New Zealand.

Yet our wonderful government has the audacity to NOT grant California the required waiver for stricter tailpipe emissions after doing so for 40 years. As some puppet spouts off ‘bout how we’ve increased the CAFÉ standards to an average of 35mpg by 2020, (Big F’ing Dealoe! As the Auto manufacturers (GM, Ford, Chrysler & Toyota who’ve worked so diligently to BLOCK this for decades) will finally have to do something…)

Thus, I was happy to see that Washington has joined California and 14 other states in suing the federal government for failing to approve stronger regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.

Yet isn’t it nice that we’ve had to get the “$heister’s” involved in filing what I’m sure will be the first of many lawsuits trying to curb NOXIOUS carbon gasses (CO2) which are NOT only bad for the environment they’re also bad for us Humans to inhale!

Racing goes Green?

And while the retortive “sound bites” continue to flood mainstream media, as the “hype” over being environmentally “clean” continues to be a “wedge” issue. David Phillips has once again written another great article towards the subject of how “RASSCAR” isn’t as “Squeaky Clean” as it would like “Y’all” to believe…

Is gasoline really Dead?

In a recent David Phillips commentary, Phillips writes that Bobby Rahal has pronounced that gasoline is dead as a future power source of motorsports…

Is Rahal on crack or simply touting the virtues of his team’s title sponsor Ethanol? You make the call…

Meanwhile RASSCAR just contested its very first race last weekend in Fontana running Unleaded gasoline for the very first time during its 50+ year history. Holy Unocal, Batmann… What’s next? Don’t tell me RASSCAR will make all ‘O dem roundy rounders ditch their beloved carberators? Would the sanctioning body dare mandate fuel injection and overhead valve trains like the rest of the civilized world currently utilizes?

Switch grass ‘N stuff

You know that old saying, know your friends, but keep an even closer eye on your Enemies… Well suffice it to say the IRL is definitely the ENEMY! Yet one must wonder what’ll happen this year with the series deciding to switch to E100, better known as 100% fuel grade Ethanol…

As Champ Cars continues to muddle about finding drivers with big enough wallets to buy the limited number of open seats, the Indy Racing League currently has a larger starting grid than Champ Car. Meanwhile the IRL has just wrapped up a two day test at the famed Daytona International Speedway…

Practicing on a modified 10 turn road course, the IRL cars attempted to circulate the famed 31 degree banking for the first time in nearly four decades with apparent ease. There were 9 teams and 17 drivers taking part in the two day test…

The fans attending were assaulted by the overpowering sickly sweet smell of corn syrup along with a vastly different style of race car than those tin tops them good ‘ole boys drive…

Will the IRL eventually host a race at Daytona? Only time (and money) will tell…

Stinking up F1

Ok, I know that I shouldn’t be touting diesels as being stinky... But they still have a bit of a reputation. Especially when I just heard that the number 1 cause of cancer in the northwest comes from breathing diesel particulates… Followed closely by benzene, a byproduct of all pump gasoline’s…

Meanwhile Ferrari test driver Marc Gene has just commented after testing the Peugeot 908 that he thinks that diesel engines would be well suited for Formula 1 in the future…

And it seems hard to believe that Formula 1 would switch from the beloved internal combustion “lumps” running on “pump” grade gasoline, especially with the Middle East just having confirmed its second Grand Prix…

Yet then again with the IRL and the ALMS switching over to Ethanol, I suppose just as long as it’s some form of Dinosaur petroleum base product, since "We’ve Got to squeeze out one more hit before it’s ALL gone…”

Corn Fed ALMS

The American Le Mans Series has decided to jump on the bandwagon of running alternative fuels for the 2007 season by announcing that all competitors will race on E10 derived petrol…

E10 stands for 10% Ethanol blended gasoline which will be used for the first time ever in a 12 hour endurance race this March at Sebring…

Audi to upstage F1?

On the heals of Max Mosley’s speech and the implementation of new Technical Rules changes for Formula 1 over the next 5 years, comes reports that Audi will continue its trendsetting ways.

After becoming the first manufacturer to win the prestigious du 24 heurs Le Mans last year, Audi now plans to attack the Circuit de la Sarthe in 2008 by running its R10 turbo diesels on Bio-fuels…

Formula 1 turning Green?

With the never ending manipulation of Crude Oil prices the current rage of major automobile manufactures is the race towards hybrid synergy’s… While Toyota leads the way in hybrid vehicles currently available to the public, Honda continues further refinement of its fuel cell powered car with Nissan set to build its very first hybrid.

At the recently held LA Auto Show, the “Big Three” gallantly blathered on about upcoming “plug-in” hybrids, as GM & Ford try to desperately cling to their eroding market share. While Detroit seems to believe that only Trucks/SUV’s are the vehicle of choice, Daimler-Chrysler was busy unveiling their new “Blue-Tec” diesel technology. Developed jointly with Audi & VW, blue-tec is the latest in diesel fuel economy technologies as emission standards have further increased for 2007.

Meanwhile Max Mosley gave a keynote speech on how Formula 1 engine manufacturers should be focusing upon alternative fuel technologies and environmental standards instead of
Simply trying to make their “lumps” rev even higher. Formula 1 engines have been “frozen” for the foreseeable future along with being mechanically rev-limited to 19,000 RPM’s for 2007.

Audi’s revolutionary R10 turbo diesel won the 12hrs of Sebring and du 24 heurs Le Mans this year, becoming the very first manufacturer in history to win these two events. The R10 went undefeated in the ALMS this year. Peugeot plans to attend the 2007 24 hours of Le Mans with its own turbo diesel. With the push towards diesel engines which get up to 40% better fuel economy over gasoline engines will we see bio-fueled turbocharged diesels powering Formula 1 chassis in the future?