The Racer’s Edge: More Ethanol! Muscle Milk Aston Martin American Le Mans Team Goes from E10 to E85 and Wins

by Robert E. Kozak (Advanced Biofuels USA) In car racing these days, sanctioning organizations set rules to try to equalize the performance of all of the cars racing in the same class to provide close, exciting racing for fans.

In the American Le Mans prototype class, restrictions are placed on the size of air intakes to equalize horsepower and torque. Since combustion requires approximately 15 parts of oxygen for every 1 part of fuel, air restrictions clearly effect how the engine performs.

In the early part of the season, the Muscle Milk team, which runs an Aston Martin/Lola prototype powered by a 6.0L (372 cubic inches) V12 engine, had been losing races to the Dyson Mazda/Lola. The Dyson team car runs a smaller turbocharged engine that is fueled with bio isobutanol. The Dyson team has been demonstrating the increased energy content of isobutanol and its performance benefits since the 2010 race season.

A frustrated Muscle Milk team, led by Race Team Technical Manager Jim Dunford in conjunction with Aston Martin engineers in England, starting testing ideas to make them more competitive with the Dyson engine/fuel combination.

They needed an increase in power coming out of corners and more speed on the straight-aways. How did they do it? They switched from E10 to E85.

As we have been discussing at Advanced Biofuels USA, the higher octane, higher oxygen content, and improved cooling effects of high ethanol blends can be translated into higher efficiency and/or more power in the same engine with only minimal changes. In other words, high ethanol blends are good fuels.

The Aston Martin engine was first tested on a dynamometer with E85 and software parameters were changed to optimize E85 octane and oxygen content. Once the software changes were set, the engine was put in the car. The car was then tested at Road Atlanta in May and the top speed was (we know but can’t say).

The results were so good that the Muscle Milk team upgraded the fuel system to E85 standards and made a rather daring decision to switch from E10 to E85 at midseason between the Lime Rock and Mosport races that were 2 weeks apart. In racing, the basic axiom is NOT to make changes if the car is working. The thinking is that changes generally produce more problems than solutions.

But sometimes the strong promise of improved performance trumps common practice. The Mosport Ontario track is a high speed circuit where extra power makes all the difference. The Muscle Milk Aston Martin/Lola won.

Mid-Ohio does not have the best of memories for the Muscle Milk team. Last year, team owner and driver Greg Pickett had a horrible crash during practice. Greg had to be helicoptered to a hospital and the car was too badly damaged to make the race.

This year the Dyson isobutanol Lola was on the pole in qualifying with the Muscle Milk car starting second. Team technical manager Jim Dunford asked everyone for positive thoughts before the race.

The green flag fell and the Dyson car took the lead. Lucas Luhr in the Aston Martin kept the Dyson car in sight through the first round of pit stops. Then, at a restart after a caution, Lucas jumped the Dyson car and came out of Turn 1 in first place. Lucas didn’t relax and extended the lead to over 7 seconds. During the final pit stop, co-driver Klaus Graf took over and maintained the lead.

If you’re now on the edge of your seats and expecting a nail-biting finish, sorry. It started to rain. Then it rained harder. Then cars started spinning off the course in very creative ways. Then the race was stopped just short of the scheduled distance. Where was the Muscle Milk Aston Martin/Lola? In first place.

After the race we asked Klaus Graf about the performance of the E85. He admitted to, “a little bit of a performance gain.” (To get a driver to even admit to that much is very unusual. They never like to give away performance “secrets.”) He also pointed out there were no reliability issues with the E85. He said they were “100% taken care of.” He went on to say, “It took a lot of math,” to make it all work.

“It took a lot of math.” I think that says it all about achieving maximum performance and efficiency with high ethanol blends and automotive engines. It can be done. All you need to do is think hard about it and keep thinking and working until you get it right.

Words to live by for all of us in biofuels. And remember, as Jim Dunford says, direct lots of positive thoughts toward this endeavor. READ MORE (American Le Mans Series) and MORE (American Le Mans Series)