|
Historic Lotus Register | News |
|---|
|
The 2024 Winter Warmer Lunch is to be held on the first floor of The Club House at the Brooklands Museum, Brooklands Road, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 OSL on Sunday 28th January.
The price is £70 per head which includes a 'sit-down' set lunch (a welcome drink, three courses, coffee and truffles) and also free entry to the museum for all those attending (usually £17.50).
For many years the home of Motor Racing in England, the purpose-built banked oval circuit was constructed in 1907. Racing there finished in 1939 and most of the track has now disappeared because of development. The museum includes some banking, race cars (both pre and post WW2), aircraft including Concorde, a bus museum and much more.
So why not arrive early (the gates open at 10 am) and take a stroll around this historic venue and some of its many and wonderful historic car and aircraft related exhibits before lunch and make a full day of it.
Advance bookings only (sorry you can't just turn up on the day). Bookings must be made by Friday 7th January 2024. Tickets are available from Nigel Halliday - a printable booking form may be downloaded here.
The 'For Sale' page has been updated - it will now include the advertisements from the current issue of Historic Lotus.
The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) has issued a Press Release, which members might find useful to read, regarding the introduction of E10 petrol and its use in classic cars.
The full article is available on the FBHVC website here, or can be downloaded here. Parts of it are reproduced below.
After an extensive consultation process, the Department for Transport has introduced legislation to mandate E10 petrol as the standard 95-octane petrol grade in Great Britain from 1 September 2021 (in Northern Ireland, this will happen in early 2022). They will also require the higher-octane 97+ 'Super' grades to remain E5 to provide protection for owners of older vehicles. This product will be designated as the 'Protection' grade. The change in fuel applies to petrol only. Diesel fuel will not be changing. Petrol pumps now show new labels designating the grade, the maximum ethanol content and an advisory cautionary notice. Other information regarding the introduction of E10 petrol may also be provided by fuel retailers such as the 'Know your Fuel' sticker. The Federation recommends that all vehicles produced before 2000 and some vehicles from the early 2000s that are considered non-compatible with E10 - should use the Super E5 Protection grade where the Ethanol content is limited to a maximum of 5%.
Some historic vehicles use materials in the fuel systems that are damaged by ethanol. These include some cork, shellac, epoxy resins, nylon, polyurethane and glass-fibre reinforced polyesters. In later cars these have largely been replaced with paper gaskets, Teflon, polyethylene and polypropylene which are all unaffected by ethanol. Very old leather gaskets and seals are also resistant to ethanol.
As the ethanol molecule is smaller and more polar than conventional petrol components, there is a lower energy barrier for ethanol to diffuse into elastomer materials. When exposed to petrol/ethanol blends these materials will swell and soften, resulting in a weakening of the elastomer structure. On drying out they can shrink and crack resulting in fuel leaks.
If your fuel system has old hoses or any degradation of components, then ethanol may appear to advance these problems very quickly. You may experience leaks or fuel 'sweating' from fuel lines. Some fuel tank repair coatings have been found to breakdown and clog fuel systems, although there are plenty of ethanol resistant products on the market.
Ethanol contains approximately 35% oxygen by weight and will therefore result in fuel mixture enleanment when blended into petrol. Petrol containing 10% ethanol for example, would result in a mixture-leaning effect equivalent to approximately 2.6%, which may be felt as a power loss, driveability issues (hesitations, flat spots, stalling), but also could contribute to slightly hotter running. Adjusting mixture strength (enrichment) to counter this problem is advised to maintain performance, driveability and protect the engine from overheating and knock at high loads.
Ethanol has increased acidity, conductivity and inorganic chloride content when compared to conventional petrol which is typically pH neutral. Ethanol can cause corrosion and tarnishing of metal components under certain conditions. These characteristics are controlled in the ethanol used to blend E5 and E10 European and UK petrol by the ethanol fuel specification BS EN15376 in order to help limit corrosion.
Some aftermarket ethanol compatibility additives claim complete protection for operating historic and classic vehicles on E10 petrol. The FBHVC is not aware of, or has tested any additives that claim complete fuel system protection with respect to elastomer and gasket materials for use with E10 petrol. The FBHVC therefore recommends that elastomer and gasket materials are replaced with ethanol compatible materials before operation on E10 petrol.
However, corrosion inhibitor additives can be very effective in controlling ethanol derived corrosion and are recommended to be added to ethanol in the BS EN15376 standard. It is not clear if corrosion inhibitors are universally added to ethanol for E5 and E10 blending so as an additional precaution it is recommended that aftermarket corrosion inhibitor additives are added to E5 and E10 petrol.
These aftermarket ethanol corrosion inhibitor additives often called ethanol compatibility additives are usually combined with a metallic valve recession additive (VSR) and sometimes an octane booster and have been found to provide good protection against metal corrosion in historic and classic vehicle fuel systems.