New track day fuel additive

[Wes_H]

Hi guys,

My first post here after being a lurker for a while

I was talking to a chap at the Autosports Show back in January about fuel additives for use on track days and he told me his company was releasing a new additive called rush101 (or something like that) that can boost 99 octane to 101.

I've got a 944 S2 that I occasionally take for a spin around some local tracks and I'm wondering if this would be worth giving a try? Assuming I can find somewhere that sells it, I've searched high and low for the damn stuff! I've used other additives in the past with mixed results.

Cheers

[GORDON STREETER]

Unless the engine is tuned for a higher octane fuel you are wasting your money as the slower burn rate will decrease the HP.
However what it is good for is stopping pre ignition that can soon ruin an engine so whatever you choose to use won't do any harm as IMHO they all do the same thing, so one isn't any better than another regardless of price.

[GORDON STREETER]

Just to clarify things regarding octane boost additives, I stand by my statement above but will add that when I was racing at Mondello Park I found that the only fuel that I could buy at the local filling station was unleaded low octane, as my car runs almost 13.1 CR there was no way I could race so I used a fair amount of octane boost with no problems all weekend.
Also as most of us know the lead replacement/octane boost ones are good for valve seat recession on older engines that haven't had unleaded seats fitted, especially when used for long races or lots of road miles.

[tristancliffe]

The only stuff I'd touch is TetraBoost (they do octane and TEL additives, plus an ethanol combatant, but I have no experience of the latter).

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by tristancliffe

The only stuff I'd touch is TetraBoost (they do octane and TEL additives, plus an ethanol combatant, but I have no experience of the latter).

I would agree on only using what you know works but I have found that most of them do the same thing regardless of price using the same fuel.
The best way is to try it on a rolling road or engine dyno so you can hear if it's doing any damage, whereas you can't on the track with a helmet on and other cars around you unfortunately.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

Also as most of us know the lead replacement/octane boost ones are good for valve seat recession on older engines that haven't had unleaded seats fitted, especially when used for long races or lots of road miles.

I've just reread what I said earlier, spot the deliberate mistake !

[SidewaysFeltham]

I am totally with Gordon on this one!

I could go into a technical and windy explanation about BMEP, Adiabatic Efficiency, Stoichiometric Combustion and Ratios and etc, however this excellent work does it very well.

http://www.carbibles.com/fuel_engine_bible_pg3.html

Since the 1950s, there has been a plethora of magic liquids and pastes for cars which cure everything from worn bores and pistons (Krause Labs; anyone remember this?) to numerous snake oil additives guaranteeing instant massive power increases.



Together with various gizmos offering huge new fuel economies!

Perhaps one of the very best was one outfit years back flogging an economy kit for side valve Fords......... which were always notoriously thirsty.

This wonder kit was simply a much weaker main jet.

Which was sort of fine, if the driver never exceeded 25 MPH; never accelerated beyond sort of 0 to 25 time of half an hour.

Most normal drivers who bought the scam finished up burning out the valves and often the pistons too!



Wonderful Cost-Benefit result, then..................

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by SidewaysFeltham

Since the 1950s, there has been a plethora of magic liquids and pastes for cars which cure everything from worn bores and pistons (Krause Labs; anyone remember this?)

That used to be advertised in the in the Exchange & Mart and it was all you needed so you didn't need to have all the expense of a reconditioned engine, I bet they made a small fortune !
And as for the "exhaust extractor" gizmo that you put on the end of the tail pipe

[SidewaysFeltham]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

That used to be advertised in the in the Exchange & Mart and it was all you needed so you didn't need to have all the expense of a reconditioned engine, I bet they made a small fortune !
And as for the "exhaust extractor" gizmo that you put on the end of the tail pipe

I well remember those, Gordon!

And also an item in one of those dreadful DIY car mags of the time, where a bloke wrote in and described how he had made a look-a-like exhaust extractor fora few pennies from scrap: an old small paint can (Humbrol?) a cheap tin funnel and a gash jubilee clip from his junk box.

Whereupon the MD of the outfit making the gizmo wrote in an amusing letter to the ed saying summat like:

"Dear Sir, whilst Mr Z has revealed our secret it must be remembered we suffer a huge cost and employ teams of men combing scrapheaps for discarded paint cans and jubilee clips and another team scouring ironmongers for cheap tin funnels!"



I also, as a young and naive tyro, persuaded an acquaintance, a metal basher, to make me an outsized Peco-type exhaust resonance chamber for my -Speedwell Blue - Austin A35.

It was a monster! How the exhaust pipe or the tailpipe mounting didn't break......

Parked up one day outside the late Bill Basson's place and he nicely asked me to move my heap further up the road as he didn't want serious punters to be put off by any association with Boy Racers!

Lovely man: lost most of an arm at Le Mans and his commodious workshop used to prep Ritchie Ginther's GP Porsche at the time and also serviced John Whitmoore's early Jag E Type amongst others.

Taught me quite a bit; in a very kindly and fatherly fashion.