I guess they have to decide to put it into production first...

http://www.autoblog.com/category/ferrari/

 

Gas guzzler tax avoidance? ALMS intentions?

 

Ferrari & E85 dont mix...LOL

 

Why is that? You can produce very good power results on e85.

 

And no one says you have to run E85, you can run normal pump gas without changing a thing. I’m sure Ferrari built in a fuel map correction **** just like on an f1 car though. I am fairly sure this would in fact get you around the extra gas tax, while not much it's still something. I wonder if this peeked any interests in South America? We are so behind the times in the US.

 

Yeah, make them easier to burn to the ground. What could possibly go wrong?

 

Can you say marketing ploy?

 

Too bad the majority of people who buy these cars don’t care about mileage, and if you want a random burn, go get an R8. Hate to sound like a hippie, but sooner or later we are going to run out of dinosaur tar, or the people from the land of the sand are going to make it impractical. Ferrari is just looking to the future as are almost every other auto maker. Name one major brand that hasn’t taken an alternative fuel to at least prototype stage. Give it a few years and you will look back at this thread with a different view. Every time I see major company with so much on the line start reaching for something like this, it makes me think they know something more then we choose to.

 

It would be nice if they looked to the future in a manner that actually involved a sustainable, viable alternative to gasoline. Ethanol isn't one.

 

Plus a 5% increase in fuel efficiency is hardly an increase.

 

E85 is essentially 105 octane, I'm sure that was part of it.

And it also turns the F430 into a 90mpg (of gas) machine Depends how governments decide to calculate fuel efficiency standards--whether they're based on "gas" used or "fuel" used.

 

Anyone every heard of Brazil? If gas mileage is the issue I’m sure you could get a couple Prius hybrids for cost of a conversion let alone sticker of the car. Rev up that motor, be careful you don’t drain the batteries though. Just admit it’s a cool idea because it’s different. Exotics normally are anything but eco friendly. This may not be fuel cell friendly, but I don’t think Ferrari would ever use that type of energy because they are not that type of company. 5% gain on any aspect of any Ferrari is a substantial one. They are very highly strung, highly tuned right from the get go.

 

The engineer in me requires that I label things as cool because they work, not because they're different.

Driving a Prius is different than getting 50mpg in a VW Golf TDI, but you won't see me doing that any time soon, because the car is a poorly executed stupid people tax, not a solution to any given problem of note.

 

+1. I love Ferrari 19000. The marque, the history, the cars. But I hate anything that tries to pass itself off as an engineering feat when it's merely just a marketing tactic to give the PR department something to bring up in it's fights against the local hippie group.

And as an engineer, I also respect things that work, not because they're different. And this isn't even different. The concept of throwing in E85 gas and changing the fuel system and the ECU is nothing that substantial that makes me go wow. How 'bout put all the money all your ****ty dealers make off of markups into a research fund for a gasoline replacement.

 

The thing that makes it different is that this isn’t a Ford or GM. It just nice to see people starting to acknowledge there is more to fast cars then power alone. I haven’t ever seen a production based car of this nature with ethanol. This is a similar step that the r10 and 908 took in terms of deriving race performance from something untraditional. Radical full electric cars like the opal may be fast but you still have to plug it in. Hybrids are just not performance oriented . A Ferrari fueled from some plants in a field just has a strange interesting ring to it. Of course its almost irrelevant today in the US as mentioned in the article. Actually converting an engine to ethanol is very simple. You could even run a traditional petrol engine on E85 no changes at all. The only difference is compatible materials in the fuel system, and different fuel and ignition map. I have actually mixed my own blends to get cars past emissions when removing converters. You just have to make sure not to leave any in the lines, tank, or injectors.