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If we (SCCA) get to a point where we have to purchase gas at the track (Not at a local gas station), I am done... Thier has to be a point when we say enough is enough. How did we ever race in the 80's (thats as far back as I go) without the safety equipment, fuel tests, etc. of todays world?
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As I understand it, the reason fuel testing was instituted is that some racers started adding aggressive oxygenates to their fuel, in search of power, mostly in the classes with tightly controlled engines. Hey, if you can get 8 HP in a FC (as an example), you’re that much up on everyone else. Also, $40/gallon for juiced fuel is way cheaper than a $15K for a top of the line Ford Pinto engine. (I’m not banging on FC here; it’s just an example. Save the flames, guys.) Some of the additives were so toxic that the exhaust was making grid and corner workers sick. The club decided this had no place in club racing, and here we are today. The problem is that the inexpensive tests done for additives are unable to differentiate between MTBE and propylene oxide or paradioxane. No one believes that a few percent MTBE or ethanol in your fuel is going to harm anyone any more than straight gasoline exhaust fumes. Also, though, no one wants to spend the thousands of dollars for sophisticated testing equipment (and to hire lab technicians to operate it) to separate out common air-quality oxygenates from the other additives.