BadNick

OK, I lied to get your attention since they're using the same old E85.

I guess soon we might be able to put Ferrari on our "eco-friendly clean buring cars" list. Cleaner burn but worse milage. We have at least one E85 station here in Philadelphia, some parts of the U.S. have many E85 stations. I hope they start using other bio feedstocks for ethanol instead of corn ...I'm noticing more mention of switchgrass again, lately. I'll be trying E85 in spite of worse milage but my motivation is very non-green, I just want more octane and E85 has it for less than racegas.

http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...technologyNews

Ferrari unveils ethanol-powered sports car

DETROIT (Reuters) - Fill up your Ferrari at the farm?

The Italian luxury sports car maker unveiled a concept car on Monday that can run on ethanol which it said reflected its engineering expertise from Formula One racing and growing demand for alternative fuel vehicles in the United States.

The sleek Ferrari F430 Spider Biofuel, with green stripes on its silver bodywork, consumes an E85 -- 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline -- mix, a growing fuel blend in the U.S.

Ferrari chief executive Amedeo Felisa said during a news conference at the North American International Auto Show that the concept was part of the firm's efforts to reduce tailpipe emission levels by 40 percent by 2012.

Felisa said Ferrari had gleaned experience in using biofuel in Formula I because of regulations that competitors use gasoline with a 5.75 percent biomass content.

The FIA GT and American Le Mans Series racing organizations require 10 percent ethanol.

For the Spider Biofuel, Ferrari made some changes to the fuel injection system and to the engine's computer chip. The result was an increase in power output, with equal weight and a five percent decline in carbon dioxide emissions.

Ferrari, a unit of Fiat (FIA.MI: Quote, Profile, Research), shipped 6,400 cars in 2007, up 14 percent on 2006.

Sales to the Asia Pacific rose 50 percent, with 177 cars delivered to China. Sales to the Middle East rose 32 percent.

ASU2003

I'm kind of surprised they didn't use E100 like they do in Indy cars now. But it is easier to find E85 at the local gas station.

I wonder if this ethanol engine technology will get better in the next few years, or if it is close to it's peak performance/mpg?

BadNick

Good question, I was actually wondering along those lines as I posted above. What I read is that you get roughly 30% less milage with E85 than gasoline, but to me it seems reasonable to think they will improve that. But it seems something is incongruous when talking about economy and Ferrari.

Painted

Wait a sec, I thought that the octane/composition of a fuel had nothing to do with the mileage it produces, ie all gas gets you the same mileage, because to the car it just sprays in the same amount for everything. Im sure there's a really simple explanation for this, so enlighten me please!

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Plan9

Damnit, I was expecting this car to also run on spaghetti and meatballs.

...

Yeah, even premium automobile manufacturers are getting on the fuel economy bandwagon.

Rumor has it automobile fuels are kinda a-whole-lotta expensive in Europe.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

DEI37

The makeup of ethanol carries less energy per gallon than gasoline does. As a result, you make less power, and get less miles per gallon of the fuel. It is not really a good fuel, and isn't going to make much difference in anything. Personally, just use gasoline. In the end, it CAN be cheaper.

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Generally speaking, if you were to get what you really deserve, you might be unpleasantly surprised.

dirtyrascal7

I can't even imagine how expensive it would be to run a car strictly on olive oil!

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"Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him."

bobby

what ever happened to soybeans???

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BadNick

You're right about energy per gallon favoring gasoline, but when you say it isn't a good fuel and isn't going to make much difference, I think that can change. Regardless of miles per gallon, we really care more about cost per mile, both for the car and in a global economic sense; so if the cost per mile becomes less than what it is/will be for gasoline or other fuel, then it will become a good choice. If/when they figure out how to make ethanol from cheap bio sources like perennial grasses, scrap wood products, other sources of cellulose, etc. instead of expensive stuff like corn, or to a lesser extent even soybeans, then ethanol will become economically viable.

Not that I believe everything they say, but this report by Argonne National Laboratory has some good charts summarizing their research/point of view and shows a highly favorable future for ethanol ...but not when made from corn http://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/TA/347.pdf

In the end, now that I think of it, one day we will probably be able to run Ferrari's on cellulose scraps from olive groves.

souzafone

Fuel made from food sources is just false economy relying on government subsidies to make any economic sense. It still has to be refined and cost analysis tend to conveniently "forget" the expense and additional fuel used to harvest, store, and process these fuels. I think the future lies in synthetic gas-to-liquid type fuels currently being developed, like that used in the Audi Lemans winning cars. BadNick, you got me going there, thought I was going to be reading up on a Ferrari diesel!