On Sun, 26 Mar 2017 21:54:09 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 26 Mar 2017 21:46:48 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 27 Mar 2017 01:09:16 +0000 (UTC), John McCoy
wrote:

wrote in news:bjhgdcpjf6g5q717qsm4m8ri1blbm4lkkr@
4ax.com:

And to the best of my knowlege virtually all Sprint and Indy engines
have been running Methanol since the sixties, or even earlier.. LONG
before the Turbo Indy engines.

Methanol(*) was used on and off from the 30s. It has the great
advantage of being detonation-proof if you run rich, and
there's no power loss if it's rich. With mechanical fuel
injection you couldn't control the mixture all that well,
so methanol was the way to go.

That said, methanol is a pain to work with, so a lot of guys
found it simpler and cheaper to stick with a carb and gas.
With the tires available even into the 60s the Offy could
usually overpower them on gas, unless it was a big track
like a mile (or, of course, Indy).

John

(* vaguely on topic reference - methanol comes from wood)
Most of the sanctioned tracks REQUIRED methanol by the sixties. USAC
for sure requires Methanol - and most sprint cars today run either 360
or 410 cu inch V8s. - with a 305 inch class gaining ground.

Upon checking the rule books, ALL USAC sprint and midget classes are
limited to alcohol fuel - most classes Methanol only - some classes
allow Ignite Ethanol or Methanol. NONE allow gasoline of ANY type..


This has been true for as long as I can remember.
Further investigation reveals USAC made the switch to methanol in
1964/65 for sprint and Indy racing - at leat one USAC sprint class has
switched exclusively to Ignite Red Ethanol over the last couple of
years.

Eddie Sachs' death in the '64 Indy put an end to gasoline.