Bioethanol-fueled Triumph Daytona 675 reaches 159mph

Running on fuel produced from fermented apples, a Triumph Daytona 675 reached a top speed of 158.7mph on Thursday at England's Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground. This speed matches that of a petroleum-fueled Daytona. Project Fast Fruit was a collaboration between Bike Magazine and A-Level Chemistry students with the aim of demonstrating how easily and successfully a motorcycle could be converted to run on bioethanol. As a result of the project's success, Triumph is investigating the possibility of making future models compatible with E25 (25 percent ethanol, 75 percent gasoline).
Only a remapping of the bike's fuel-injection system was required to convert it to run on the bioethanol, which required considerably more effort to produce. Students from the Prince William School in Northamptonshire fermented 6,000 windfall apples in their chemistry lab in order to do so.

Despite the questionable sustainability of biofuels (the increased demand for ethanol in the States has already caused the price of corn to rise), the British government is determined to move forward with their use. All diesel and gasoline sold there will be required to contain a minimum of 5 percent biofuel by 2010. While that amount requires no modification to work in just about any engine, Project Fast Fruit demonstrates just how easily vehicles could be adapted to work with fuel composed from a greater percentage of biofuel or even to run on it entirely.

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