Ethanol mixed fuels are a dumb idea,  in spite of what the tree-huggers and
politicians would have us believe.    Engineers have known since the early
1900s that a given quantity of alcohol will yield only about 50% the amount
of energy as the same amount of gasoline.   What that means,  of course,  is
that you have to burn more of it to go the same distance.

Alcohol fuels are used in some race engines mainly because they run cooler,
not because they produce good mileage or power.   Those engines run main
jets with holes the size of your thumb in order to get enough fuel into the
engine to give the performance the builders are looking for.

It takes more energy to produce the alcohol than the stuff yields,  so the
best that can be said for it is that E85 and similar fuel programmes may be
disguised subsidy systems for farmers.   They are not the answer to our fuel
problem.

KH