Cool Fuel

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

When I was a kid, I remember some Alky teams doing this. I believe that Dick O'Dea's team tried putting methanol on ice before the races.

David,

WE actually used a drag racer type fuel cooler. When I set the "C & D" competition records in Lakeland in 1969 that's what we used. It used to drive Dick nuts trying to locate Dry Ice for the cooler. The fuel was not pre-cooled and when you finished a heat, the cooler had to be re-filled with Dry Ice. At Depue that year, I won "C" & was 4th in "D", but we couldn't find any dry ice. We just used regular ice, which probably had little effect.

[David Weaver]

David,

WE actually used a drag racer type fuel cooler. When I set the "C & D" competition records in Lakeland in 1969 that's what we used. It used to drive Dick nuts trying to locate Dry Ice for the cooler. The fuel was not pre-cooled and when you finished a heat, the cooler had to be re-filled with Dry Ice. At Depue that year, I won "C" & was 4th in "D", but we couldn't find any dry ice. We just used regular ice, which probably had little effect.

Interesting. I specifically remember someone using it at Winona, MN one year at the Nationals (maybe with a Crescent 500cc ?).

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Interesting. I specifically remember someone using it at Winona, MN one year at the Nationals (maybe with a Crescent 500cc ?).

Could have been Dick with Jeff Hutchins driving but by then he had all but abandoned the Alky Crescent.

[Mark75H]

Isopropyl alcohol is a very good idea, but remember 90% isopropyl is 10% water, don't be surprised to find a little bit of water ice in the container now and then, it would be a normal event.

The freeze/melt point for 100% isopropyl is -90 degrees C. Dry ice sublimes from solid to liquid at -109 or -104 F, but I don't remember which without looking it up.

[mac19f]

Water and alcohol together make a solution not a mixture. The water in isopropyl being the lesser amount is the solute and the alcohol is the solvent. So the water will not freeze separately from the alcohol. No more than the water in your car radiator would freeze out of the antifreeze because they are a solution not a mixture. It is also good to note that almost without exception, solutions freeze at a lower temperature than either of the two components separately.