shucks pardner, darned if i know how how much it costs. but i'll check it out.

when i was a youngin' and was into racing a gallon of nitromethane was $5.85. i suppose in todays money that would be about $25- $30 dollars a gallon.

but i'll look around and see what i find.

$25 to $30 a gallon wouldn't be any good unless we could get about 300 miles a gallon out of that stuff.

well i did some research and sit here flabbergasted,no pun intended, at what i found out. the burn rates for nitromethane is something like 4 gallons per second, thats right 4 gallons per second, you don't need to wipe your eyes.

now that figure is for a race engine that is typically 8.9 liters and produces 6000hp. i know you are a ford fan and if you follow drag racing you know or have heard of john force. so if i figure correctly he uses approximately 16 gallons of nitro per quarter mile run.

i also found out nitro cost $27.39 per gallon. that was a good ewag on my part when i said $25-$30 dollars a gallon. whenever i want to figure out what something cost in the old days i simply multiply times five. works just about everytime.

also applicable is that both nitro and methanol are highly toxic and poisonous to the human body when not properly utilized. they also burn drier and require different oils for proper engine lubrication. it is my understanding that this is the reason synthetic oils became the hauteur for almost all of racing. methanol can be produced for about 40 cents a gallon but has less energy content than gasoline so therefore it takes more of it. one draw back of methanol is it is a byproduct of natural gas. well, now we know where this is going to go don't we? as soon as we start using alot the price will immediately jump and triple or quadruple as soon as there is demand. gee my profit margin isn't high enough, so sayeth the producer.

i can't even start to reproduce all i read about these fuels so i trust you can google them up.

as far as you and i utilizing methanol or nitro it could be a diminishing return. as far as nitro i think it would be a bust,too much enginge tuning.

for methanol the future is much better. there are already vehicles that use a 85 0/0 methanol 15 0/0 gasoline mixture.

the bad features of methanol are it is corrosive in fuel systems and there are starting problems in cold weather. that would be a treat up here when the temp hits -40 degrees. that is one good thing about ethanol gas we get here. it breaks down water content in the gas if there is any. but we north dakotans know how to take care of that problem should it arise.

also there are vehicles that can burn a 50-50 mixture of methanol gasoline. but they are highly modified from the factories.

well bud my good hand is killing me, so i got to get off this keyboard before i start cramping up.

have a good one.

Hey Billy, what happened to the caps?

Thanks for the info buddy. I am seriously looking at all my options for our next car. Luckily for me, we won't need a new one for some years to come, but I want to be prepared should the need arise unexpectedly (i.e., my Taurus has 133,000 on it and her Sonata has 73,000 on it).

I definitely want to get something that gets more than 30 mpg or runs on some fuel cheaper than gasoline, more efficient than gasoline, and/or more abundant than gasoline. Ford use to offer a motor in the Taurus that was a flex fuel motor. I don't know the specifics of it, but it was available when I bought my Taurus. Haven't seen it as an option on the new one though, but I will confess that I haven't looked that hard.

Right now, I am leaning toward the Escape hybrid that gets 40 mpg highway. Ideally, I would like a hybrid or flex fuel Explorer or Expedition, and I am hoping Ford gets that in the works soon so that the kinks can be worked out before I have to buy another car.

Who knows, maybe ethanol will be the fuel of choice later on or I might just have to go with pedal power and put some racks on my bike.