All about E85. Video: MCM
 

https://youtu.be/ltWcgiCm4NY

Here is a little video done over by the guys at Mighty Car Mods all about E85. It's pretty educational and will enlighten some people who are new to this fuel or may be considering it.

Poor Cheryl...

There were two things not made clear. Roughly how much more power (as a percentage) could I reasonably expect to make over a custom tune on regular petrol.

Also whether that benefit is still worth chasing on an N/A car over a boosted one?

I appreciate the cooling nature of E85 would lend itself more favourably towards use on a boosted car and so be of greater benefit, but as a person sticking to an NA build I'd want to know whether its worth bothering with. I have two E85 stations within a reasonable distance of where I live ie within 5km or so.

As it is I fill up once every two weeks so going to a weekly top up on the weekends is not a big deal for me.

On an NA brz/85 E85 is worth 10-15 wheel hp over petrol (tuned)

On a boosted car gains are much more substantial upwards of 50hp easily possible over petrol.

see links below
Basic Bolt on mods
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81493

E85 on stock car
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67310

Not exactly answering your first question, but my lightly modded NA car running on an E85 tune (OFT OTS tune) made about +20whp over a totally stock NA BRZ.

http://86drive.com/2014/05/18/pmoks-dyno-results/

And if you ask me, yeah E85 is worth it for an NA car (if it's convenient for you to fill up with it).

@steve99 & @PMok

Thanks both! Once my warranty is out I'm looking to do headers and a tune so will consider going that one step further and install a flex fuel kit. This would still be a year off though. Who knows e85 might spread to nearer stations by then.

I have a Caltex at the bottom of my street and I know they do E85 so here's hoping!

Just for reference, remember that here in Oz the Caltex is flex-fuel and variable between about E60 and E85 depending on the time of year etc., while United is a guaranteed minimum E85 (but also a fair bit more expensive in Qld at least).

That's an excellent tip! I do have a United roughly the same distance away from me. I imagine the balance would simply change to more petrol content then and improve economy so I guess that's not all that bad with the Caltex fuel.

Yes caltex is good enough for NA cars and you will likely get a bit better economy on caltex due lower ethanol content.

United is good stuff but probably overkill for NA, its very consisestent almost E90, great for turbo guys.

united is about $1.30 and clatex eflex arround $1.10.

I'm NA with full exhaust and E85. The difference between E85 and petrol is noticeable, but not mind blowing. If you have a convenient supply, then by all means go for it. But I wouldn't go too far out of my way for E85 while NA.

In the video there was a fair degree of variation in the relative consumption of 85 vs regular fuel. If I recall there was from 40% all the way down to the V8 super cars segment mentioning 30%.

Seeing as both you and the supercars are tuned and seeing as you have my desired mods I'd love to hear what you believe the actual % difference really is in our cars.

From what I read a good custom tune, even on an otherwise stock car, will improve fuel consumption to some degree, but having owned a few V8's in the past, driving style can have quite the adverse impact.

I might add that fuel economy is of no concern to me in any way. My angle is to gauge how often I would need to fill up relative to now which is around every 16-18 day's. I only do a round trip of 22km to work and back each day.

On road trips, driving at a sustained 83mph (133kph), I can eke out around 300 miles (480km) on a tank. I might be able to go a bit further, but I don't let the low fuel light come on.

With purely city driving, I only get about 200 miles (320km) before I feel I need to refuel, but that's with a pretty heavy foot. (Edit: not purely city, but mixed use. even if you're just driving around town you probably have to get on a highway here in Houston)

Arround town you will get about 10 L\100km on e85 as oposed to about 8 on petrol if your driving non agressivly

found its about 25% extra usage on average over petrol

you will need to make changes to the oft tune as per @Wayno ,s thread to achieve that on oft tunes

As long e85 is more cheap than pump gas 93 oct, im on it