Tigges Talk - Alcohol Wishing

So our fresh chassis is still at Murf McKinney's, the tin is supposed to be in today from the anodize shop, then some assembly work, then it finally ships after four months of waiting. There have been too many delays, hopefully he can get it out this week before Indy is going strong. We are ready to wrench this new pipe together!!! No Indy for us, maybe Charlotte??? Time will tell. So what do racers do when they can't be there?

They torment themselves with wishing... they do stupid things like checking the weather for where they want to be...

Indy Forecast

That, my friends is some fantastic racing weather, both on the track & sitting outside the trailer in the evening!

Of course wishing doesn't make the pain go away, and I quit drinking years ago (Fred & Kevin make up for me), but I have been thinking about alcohol, so here is a little primer on the family of liquid we use...


Ethanol – This is the stuff you drink. Made from breaking down sugars.

Methanol – This is the stuff we burn in the racecar. Made from breaking down wood or via catalytic conversion processes.

Denatured Alcohol – This is ethanol with 10% methanol or other nasty stuff like acetone added to make it unfit to drink.

Isopropyl Alcohol or Isopropanol – This is the main component in Dry-Gas. A secondary alcohol made by compounding water with propene or acetone.

Rubbing Alcohol – This is the stuff mom always had in the cabinet that made your skin cold. It is 70-85% either ethanol or isopropyl mixed with nasties like acetone or MIK. What was mom thinking????

There you have it. Wishing we were there.

Chris Saulnier - Team Tigges
Mechanic Falls, Maine

 

Kitty Dukakis liked rubbing alky