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14^th August 2006 (Source: Oaktec )

A pioneering project in green motorsport took another step forward when the Oaktec Honda Insight Hybrid rally car used E85 Bio-ethanol (85% ethanol, 15% petrol) for the first time on Sunday's Centenary Rally, running in Class A of the Formula 1000 Rally Championship. Bio-ethanol is a fully renewable fuel derived from farm crops such as maize and sugar beet, as well as crop waste. The car, which has support from Motorsport Development UK through the Energy Efficient Motorsport (EEMS ) programme, was crewed by Oaktec partners Paul Andrews and Bill Meeson, and competes in the Formula 1000 class. The one litre car uses a V-TEC 3 cylinder engine with an electric motor/generator built into the flywheel, which boosts performance under acceleration and converts wasted braking energy into electricity which is stored in a 22kg battery pack. The team has been testing a development Insight with E85, and was comfortable with the performance and reliability of the fuel, but on the rally chose to use it just for the final 2 stages of the 6 stage event.

"The car ran faultlessly throughout the event and the ethanol fuel gave us no noticeable drop in performance. The use of this fuel completes the green circle and gives us what we believe is the ultimate environmentally responsible rally car," said driver and engineer Paul Andrews. "Despite the car retaining all the technology that gives it low emission vehicle status, it has excellent straight line performance and only struggled on this event with the roughness of the stages for what was originally built as a car for smooth tarmac roads."

Despite the rough ground, the Insight finished in 29th position overall and 6th in F1000 and now leads Class A in the series. The team is about to embark on an extensive development programme to exploit the characteristics of the Hybrid systems for rallying and other motorsport applications and to get the best output from the E85 fuel, which is becoming increasingly available on UK forecourts.