FlexFuel Ferrari
Posted: January 15, 2008
It’s all about being flexible at the 2008 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit - flexible fuel, that is.
Take Ferrari, for example. The Associated Press picked up on the story that Ferrari is experimenting with ethanol to help its luxury sports cars produce lower emissions and improve fuel economy.
Ferrari said Monday it developed an engine for an F430 Spider to run on E85, an 85% ethanol blend. The automaker said it produces 5 percent less carbon dioxide emissions and boosts horsepower by 10 percent.
There are lots of other new flex-fuel vehicles at the show. The Illinois Corn Growers reports that “the David and Goliath of the flex-fuel war being waged at the event had to be the concept cars introduced by Hummer and Saab.”
The new e85 Hummer HX is much smaller than its cousins, but markedly bigger and beefier than Saab’s 9-4x BioPower concept vehicle. Meanwhile, Saab’s 9-4X BioPower concept vehicle has a small but powerful engine that should make the most of e85’s higher octane.