shakran

Funny car engines are nearly always rebuilt between each run, just like the top fuels are. No dragster engine goes anywhere near as long as a passenger car engine before needing a total rebuild.

We'll just disagree on that one I've just always felt steering wheels should be more than decoration





For quite awhile actually - those rumors in 2003 that we were running out of oil "fast" have been widely derided as being bunk.

But you're right. The price of oil will continue to rise. You'll get no argument from me that we need to find a good alternative energy source. But the key word there is GOOD. Ethanol, at least at the current time, is not a GOOD energy source. In fact, it's not even an energy source. It's an energy storage medium. That means we expend a lot of energy making it, and then get less energy out of it when we use it. Any time you get less energy out of something than you put into making/getting it, it is not an energy source.

I am not arguing against alternative energy. I am not even arguing against ethanol as a potential future energy source. But until we can figure out how to make ethanol, and get more energy out of the ethanol than we expend in its manufacture, we should not be forcing ethanol on the public.

Further, once we do (if we ever do) figure out how to make ethanol without losing net energy, we must also figure out how to make a regular passenger car (that must be reliable for more than one mile) run reliably on ethanol, and ONLY ethanol, not a BS ethanol/gasoline blend, without major sacrifices in driveability.

Once we've figured that out, I'll be the first one out of the gates singing the praises of ethanol. Until that happens, however, I will be opposed to forcing the public to use an inferior fuel that wastes energy and costs the public countless millions each year in government subsidies and mandates.