Today`s underlying concept for racing is still the same as a century ago: win (the race) on Sunday, sell (the car) on Monday. But when billions of consumers feel the stinging pinch of rising costs of living and tens of millions suffer from increasingly severe heat waves and floods, the racing they watch on TV no longer makes sense.

The big pot of gold that is tobacco has already been banned from most world class racing sanctioned by the FIA, so the key to survival is to become greener by using less fuel and produce less greenhouse emissions to project the image that motorsport is environmentally friendly and likeable.

Ethanol, the type of alcohol found in your beer and whiskey, can be used as an alternative fuel for spark ignition engine in anywhere from straight 100% (aka E100) form to a mixture comprising 10% ethanol and 90% unleaded petrol (E10) - otherwise known in Thailand as gasohol.

It is cleaner than petrol and less complicated to apply to existing engines. Petroleum-based ethanol, accounting for 5% of the world ethanol production, does not fit the green image as it`s derived from "dirty" fossil fuel.

So, biologically sourced (from crops) ethanol - or bioethanol - is the new saviour for motorsport.

In rally cars

Current World Rally cars have turbocharged 2.0 petrol engines producing some 300hp and run on specially formulated unleaded petrol with an octane rating of around 98 and not AVGAS as many believe.

They will all switch to a form of bioethanol in 2009. The PR effect for ethanol would be obvious as WRC cars look pretty much the same as cars sold in showrooms.

In Thailand, Mitsubishi won the national championship last year on E10 gasohol - although aftermarket fuel additive is believed to have been used.

In touring cars and other tin-tops

The World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), which runs cars with naturally aspirated 2.0 engines, will also switch to biofuel exclusively in 2009.

However, with a few cars already experimenting with diesel power, it is not yet clear whether they will be exempted from using biodiesel where as petrol cars will switch to ethanol.

In terms of development, Volvo has managed to win a national class race in the UK with an E85-powered S60 and took eight place outright in a recent WTCC race in Sweden.

On the opposite spectrum of tin-top racing is the immensely popular NASCAR stock car racing in the US which has just woken up to change from leaded to unleaded petrol on their carburetted engines.

In F1 and other single seaters

The pinnacle of motorsport is set to switch to ethanol in 2011 after the engine freeze rule expire.

But the needed change to avoid public rejection is to significantly lower fuel consumption to bring down CO2 emission by any respectable degree. A current F1 racecar has an absurd consumption of around 1.5kpl. However, no fuel consumption target has yet been proposed.

To further reduce fuel consumption, the car could have regenerative brake system or Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) effectively hinting at a mild ethanol/electric hybrid powertrain. The KERS was actually asked to be in place by 2009, but the teams are now asking to delay it until completely new engines can be designed for 2011. They aim to finalise the outline of a 2011 formula by the end of this year.

In the US, the Indy Racing League (IRL) has converted to 100% bioethanol this year, an improvement on last year`s blend of 90% (petroleum-based) methanol and 10% ethanol.

The rival IndyCar series is also going the 100% bioethanol route on its one-make 650hp naturally aspirated 3.5-litre V8.

Relevance to road car

A racecar engine is engineered to last only 500 to 4,000km before it`s sold to the metal recycler as junk metal. The fuel lines and parts that come into contact with the fuel such as the manifold and injectors also get scrapped at the same time.

Your car`s engine is designed to last at least until warranty ends before the first overhaul - in excess of 100,000km. So, to fantasise that they share the same technology is to be naive.

Unless it`s written in your car`s manual, you cannot be certain your car can run safely on gasohol. Motoring has personally found very few car manuals in Thailand that do.

The bottom line

All these moves to become greener may sound wonderful, but cutting emission of race cars is still virtually insignificant compared to the carbon footprint of the team`s operation.

Let us give you this example for perspective: in one race season, all the F1 race cars use up less fuel than a Boeing 747 on single one-way transcontinental flight. That flight produces as much CO2 as over 100 cars do in a whole year.

There are 11 teams, each with over a hundred people, that need to fly at least two dozen roundtrips a year just for races and all the track tests.

Seriously, what do you think pollutes more? the F1 race car or the F1 operation?

There are other and more cost-effective ways to make a smaller carbon footprint.

The Renault F1 headquarters use renewable energy and reduced 300 tonnes of CO2 per year to become carbon neutral and 40 tonnes of scrap metals are recycled each year.

Last but not least, bioethanol itself is still questionable and not just to motorsport, but to the whole world.

Most of the agencies in any ethanol producing country claim that by switching to ethanol not only do you contribute to cleaner air, but you reduce the dependence on oil imports.

One or two research papers say that using ethanol increases greenhouse emissions by cutting down forest to make way for farm land and that ethanol production itself requires energy that pollutes.

One recent research claimed that a future timeline model where all cars switch from petrol to ethanol resulted in the Earth getting warmer.

Nothing is conclusive, but the world`s financially largest sport - motorsport - will do whatever is necessary to keep its fans loyal and the money rolling in.

 Ã‚© The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2007