After watching portions of NASCAR’s Daytona 500 with the biggest race fan I know, my grandfather, something came into my mind. I wonder how many miles to the gallon these high power race cars get? Being very concerned with environmentalism naturally I was curious as to how this sport affects the environment and how people were trying to make these cars more friendly to the environment.
Although the Indy Racing Leaguehas switched to ethanol, NASCAR only recently switched from leaded to unleaded fuel and its cars still use carburetors instead of fuel injection. Carburetors do not burn gasoline a completely as cars with fuel injection systems. According to Google Answers, the typical racecar only gets 4 to 6 miles per gallon of gas. With some races that are over 200 miles long and about 40 cars running in the race, that is a lot of gasoline being used (approximately 1600 gallons)! Not exactly environmentally friendly or shying away from our dependence on oil.
NASCAR recently hired a director of “green innovation,” and NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France has spoken to former vice president Al Gore about making the sport more environmentally friendly. Jack Roush, co-owner of Roush-Fenway NASCAR team, has set out to use propane as a possible alternative fuel for race cars of the future.
Propane is a waste product from the production of gasoline and other petroleum products so it does not eliminate our need for oil. The main upside of using propane is that it burns much cleaner than gasoline, making it better for the environment. Propane get about 13% less miles per gallon compared to gasoline, but the loss in efficiency can be offset when large business fleets take advantage of wholesale propane prices that have been below $1 per gallon this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s web site.
The Roush propane conversion isn’t cheap, it costs just shy of $9,000 for parts and installation on a Ford pickup, but it is step closer to giving users more options in alternative fuels. Our energy problem will not be solved by one miracle fuel, but by multiple fuels to fulfill each particular need. This seems to be a perfect setting for a public relations situation to keep extreme environmentalists at bay.
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I agree with you that they should find a more environmental friendly fuel to use for NASCAR races. It only seems right that they are able to come up with something better than 4 to 6 miles per gallon. If I am correct I believe that is even worse than semi’s, which usually get under 10. NASCAR is a multi-million dollar business and there should be no reason they cannot spend some of that money on research for more fuel efficient cars. Doing this could also help out everyone because they could make more fuel efficient cars for everybody, thus saving our environment.
ReplyDeleteWOW... What an eye opener. I never once really throught about this and you made a great point. 4 to 6 miles per gallon is nothing at all and I too would think that there is something better out there for our enivorment. There is a lot of money out there for them to work on an big issue like this. Improving this is going to improve our enivornment and also help us out very much. They need to find way to makes efficient cars that are not going to harm our enivornment as much as the cars right now are.
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