Corvette Action Center Deep Dive Series: Gasoline for your Corvette - Page 8 of 8

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© 2009 by Hib Halverson
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The bread-and-butter of the racing gasoline business is leaded fuel. It is the best choice for racing engines requiring more than 100 octane. All vendors marketing leaded race gas have several grades available. "We have three leaded race fuels," Tim Wusz continued. "111 is our highest volume racing gas. For 53-years, it was the official gasoline for Sprint Cup Racing and all other NASCAR series. It's used by lots of 'Saturday night' racers in all types of competition using all varieties of engines."

After Conoco/Phillips bought the 76 brand in 2002, it preferred no involvement in racing so, for the 2004 season, NASCAR made a new deal with Sunoco and it became the sport's "official fuel." Today, NASCAR's gasoline is a Sunoco 98-octane unleaded fuel which works well with the sanctioning body's current 12:1 compression ratio requirement and with the excellent combustion chamber designs in the various racing heads used in NASCAR. Previous to 2004, when Cup motors ran compression from 14:1 to as high as 17:1, the former 76 Racing Gasoline, generally the same blend used today for Rockett Brand 111, provided unparalleled performance, reliability and durability, especially in "four-inch bore", V8s with super high compression and capable of turning 9500 rpm in Cup races and over 10,000 rpm in drag race applications.

"'114' is more for bigger engines," Wusz continued. "Drag racers with big motors in Super Comp, Super Gas, Pro Sportsman and so forth like it. It's good because large bore engines often need more octane. It's for medium supercharged applications, too. "'118' was originally developed for ProStock drag racing. The 118 is ideal for high-boost, supercharged applications. It's also good in engines running a lot of nitrous oxide. The 118 has a little faster burn characteristic than the 114."

Most of the other racing fuels vendors have between 3 and 5 grades of leaded race gas but some have much more. Sunoco has six varieties and VP Racing Fuels, has a mind-boggling, 29 different grades of leaded fuels for competition use. If you are having difficulty making a decision about racing gasoline, contact the suppliers of these products for detailed information and recommendations.

For Your Information:

Chevron USA, Inc.
Technical Questions
800.689.3998
fueltek@chevron.com
www.chevron.com

Christy Corp.
260 Authority Drive
Fitchburg, MA 01420
978.343.4330

Klotz Synthetic Lubricants
7424 Freedom Way
Fort Wayne, IN 46818
260.490.0489
www.klotzlube.com

Lucas Oil Products, Inc.
www.lucasoil.com

Rockett Brand Racing Fuel
Suite 75
3703 W. Lake Ave.,
Glenview IL 60026
800.345.0076
www.rockettbrand.com

Red Line Synthetic Oil Corporation
6100 Egret Court
Benicia CA 94510
800.624.7958
www.redlineoil.com

Shell Oil Co.
P.O. Box 2463
Houston TX 77252
713-241-6161
www.shell.us

Sunoco, Inc.
Suite LL
1735 Market Street
Philadelphia PA 19103-7583
215-977-3000
www.sunoco.com

VP Racing Fuels
San Antonio TX
210.635.7744
www.vpracingfuels.com