Anyone run e85 on one lap?

Hey guys,

Just found this forum for the first time and had a "THEESE ARE MY PEOPLE" moment when I saw the thread about the Soccer Mom Challenge. Everyone always tells me I have the worst car ideas they have ever heard, but now I can point them this way for proof that they aren't that bad.

Anyway, lacking the car (and funds) to do One Lap of America properly, I just registered. I'm really excited and will be doing it in a 500+ whp BMW X1 that I built for the track (I told you I have bad car ideas). This will be my first one lap and one problem with my car is that since the ecu can't be flash tuned and the engine is constantly running on the brink of catastrophic (thanks a lot piggyback tunes), I need to use e85 if I want to make any semblance of power.

Has anyone done this on one lap before? What was your strategy for availability, I am planning on carrying a few 5 gallon cans in the hatch but am leery about doing 9 hour transits at 1am while high on ethanol fumes. Is it legal to have people meet you at tracks for "fuel drops" or is that against the "you can only use what you carry" ethos?

Anyway, I am extremely excited and can't wait to drive 3000 miles with no sleep in an unreliable modified german crossover on improper fueling to drive on race tracks competing against purpose built race cars. I also don't understand why that doesn't sound appealing to anyone else in my life.

No advice, but you will fit right in.

I've done it before. You're going to have serious issues finding E85 all around the route. Run regular 91 octane and make sure you have a nice, safe, fat tune.

This is a marathon event, not a sprint, make sure your car is fully sorted and you have a few thousand miles on it before leave.

As with all endurance events, the folks who tune for MAX POWER are typically the first ones leaving on a flatbed.

You can find E85 availability online. In California, it can be a real problem unless you have a large tank and/or good mileage. What also doesn't help is that switching from gas to E85 reduces mileage by 20-30%.

I should have clarified better, the car can run on 93 and 91 for the transit stages, the tune allows me to switch fuel maps from the steering wheel volume buttons. But for the track events I will need to run e85 to be competitive. So basically my strategy is to fill up with e85 in a few vp racing cans where available and lug them through the transit stages. But I am bit concerned about driving that many miles with 15 gallons of e85 on the back of the hatch...wish I had a trunk for times like this. I need to find out if we are allowed to have people drop us fuel and supplies at the tracks...I have friends that live near several of them. That would be ideal.

If you're gonna carry fuel, I'd get a few good quality military type fuel cans and make sure the seals on the caps are good. They don't vent, so you shouldn't get fumes from carrying them inside. If you have a hitch on the X1, you could also build a carrier for that, although it might suck if you were to get rear ended.

Don't worry about being competitive. Most of the guys that are in the top twenty are professional hot shoes.

Go to have fun. Do the entire event on street fuel with the goal of finishing.

The guys in the white WRX last year did every mile on E85. They had the route planned completley for fuel availability and carried fuel on a trailer to make up for the long stretches.
The third place EVO ran E85 for all of the track stuff. They also had stations plotted out and only used premium for some long road sections. They ran down the tank and filled with E85 close to the tracks. They also had the electronics to allow the car to run on any blend that was in the car.
Both teams were incredibly nice, you should be able to Google them and find them. The EVO guys are with a shop so they should be easy to find.
Tell them the guy in the Cadillac from One Lap says hi.

docwyte wrote: Don't worry about being competitive. Most of the guys that are in the top twenty are professional hot shoes. Go to have fun. Do the entire event on street fuel with the goal of finishing.

I am well aware I will not be at the top but I am damn well going to do my best! My co-driver has done one lap twice and even finished 4th overall at one point, so I am hoping to not completely embarrass myself. But I am mainly doing it for the fun and challenge of it. I just think it's going to be amazing to do nothing besides drive and track for a week straight.

If you're gonna carry fuel, I'd get a few good quality military type fuel cans and make sure the seals on the caps are good. They don't vent, so you shouldn't get fumes from carrying them inside. If you have a hitch on the X1, you could also build a carrier for that, although it might suck if you were to get rear ended.

That's an awesome idea about the platform for the trailer hitch. We have been playing around with using the hitch as an anchor point for a gooseneck wing but we don't think we can make it rigid enough so it might be free for a fuel can platform.

The guys in the white WRX last year did every mile on E85. They had the route planned completley for fuel availability and carried fuel on a trailer to make up for the long stretches. The third place EVO ran E85 for all of the track stuff. They also had stations plotted out and only used premium for some long road sections. They ran down the tank and filled with E85 close to the tracks. They also had the electronics to allow the car to run on any blend that was in the car. Both teams were incredibly nice, you should be able to Google them and find them. The EVO guys are with a shop so they should be easy to find. Tell them the guy in the Cadillac from One Lap says hi.

Thanks! That's pretty much what I plan on doing (using e85 when I can and switching to 93 for the transit). The nice thing is that my turbo can be maxed out with only a 50% e85 blend so I should be able to stretch a few 5 gallon cans pretty far.

Have a stupid question for you guys - it's hard to see the kind of individual lap times one lap cars are running because they report them as a combo time of three laps. Does anyone know what type of times the faster cars are doing at Mid Ohio or Putnam?

Bring a bicycle so you can ride multiple laps of the tracks in the morning.

OK I think we need some pics. This thread is too long without them :P I want to see a track prepped X1

It's fat and heavy but it's fun. Turbo upgrade, bbk, wavetrac lsd, JRZ, some custom bushings and coolers, etc, etc, etc. Worst part about the car was it took me two years to figure out how to code out all of the electronic nannies in the stability control and braking modules. The funniest part about the car is that the condition based service computers will frequently call the BMW dealer while I'm on the track and indicate that I need an oil change and brake pads (Oil change indicator goes from 11,000 miles to -2000 during a track weekend). It has a 3g connection and I can't figure out how to tell it to stop telling on me to the dealership. Answered by accident via bluetooth once while in T1 at Mid Ohio.

images upload

Contact Brock Yates Jr. and ask him about lap times. He's incredibly easy to talk to. He'll probably tell you to drive as fast as you feel comfortable and see how it shakes out. For reference, the top GT-R's are rumored to be making somewhere around 800hp and are driven by very competent drivers.
I'm serious when I suggest contacting the EVO guys. I'd be shocked if they didn't share any and all information they have in an effort to get you faster. All week last year I watched teams share information and data at every track between sessions in order to find speed.
One Lap is like a week long track day where only the nicest most helpful people show up and they all want you to do well.

docwyte wrote: I've done it before. You're going to have serious issues finding E85 all around the route. Run regular 91 octane and make sure you have a nice, safe, fat tune. This is a marathon event, not a sprint, make sure your car is fully sorted and you have a few thousand miles on it before leave.

A fat tune on 91 is going to be BEYOND pig rich on E85.

OP, the only way I'd want to do it is if I had a proper flex fuel kit with accompanying tune.

Changing maps on the fly is good, but the ECU still has to relearn the LTFT and such between when switching, which takes a few miles and lots of varied RPM/loads to get it learned properly.

That's why I said to only run 91 and not bother with E85.

calteg wrote: As with all endurance events, the folks who tune for MAX POWER are typically the first ones leaving on a flatbed.

x100, Unless your car is completely sorted out

There has to be a website that lists E85 availability out there someplace...find that website and compare it to the One Lap route to see if there are gas stations near each track or not.

stuart in mn wrote: There has to be a website that lists E85 availability out there someplace...find that website and compare it to the One Lap route to see if there are gas stations near each track or not.

There is: http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/ethanol_locations.html