We love a very good father and son bonding story round right here—particularly if it entails a race between a pair of superior vehicles hatched over a glass of bourbon.
And that’s exactly what we obtained once we sat down to speak with Ian Lehn, founding father of BOOSTane fuels. You’ll be able to catch the total interview within the OnAllCylinders Podcast part or within the podcast participant right here:
Plus, we’ll additionally offer you some excerpts from the dialog under, full with some superior pics and movies too, so hold scrolling.
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What’s the BOOSTane Origin Story?
“I grew up round racing, working within the storage with the previous man, and simply fell in love with fixing stuff. That rolled into faculty and an engineering diploma, and I discovered myself racing there.”
“BOOSTane was spawned out of necessity—I wanted a senior exit thesis for my diploma. My buddies and I couldn’t actually afford race gasoline, so I assumed ‘Hey, I feel I might make our personal,” and that primarily grew to become the primary era of BOOSTane additive.
“It’s designed to rework pump gasoline right into a high-octane race gasoline equal. Which I suppose, by definition, it’s an octane booster. However I’ve all the time tried to think about BOOSTane as extra of a race gasoline different.
“We had been simply attempting to offer ourselves the chance to race our vehicles, and never be restricted by the price of gasoline, the supply of race gasoline, and transporting it round.”
Inform Us In regards to the Massive Bend Open Street Race
“It’s in Massive Bend, west Texas—stunning countryside. It’s a point-to-point race: 60 miles from Fort Stockton to Sanderson, after which again to Fort Stockton.
“It’s restricted to 160 vehicles in various courses. There’s an infinite class, however for all the opposite courses you have got a goal velocity and a tech velocity.
“My goal velocity was 105 miles an hour. So based mostly off the 120 mile whole distance, divided by 105 (mph), you possibly can work out precisely what number of minutes and seconds it’s going to take you to finish that race.”
“With all of the twists and turns of the race, you’re attempting to get as near that velocity—on the dot—as attainable.”
What Type of Vehicles Compete within the Massive Bend Open Street Race?
“Many of the vehicles you’ll see on the market are 2010 and newer—most likely not even that previous. You’re going to see a variety of actually new Mustangs, Corvettes, Porsches, Lambos, Ferraris, and GTRs.
“The truth is, it’s a scorching race—most likely 115 levels on the beginning grid. It’s a tough race to run and it tends to cater extra in the direction of newer vehicles.”
However What Automotive Did You Run?
“(Laughing) OK, the automotive that was type of chosen for me was a 1969 Ford Mustang. It had a 351 Cleveland with a top-loader four-speed.
“It had some fairly cool guts to it, nevertheless it had sat and picked up a variety of mud. So this factor wanted a variety of like to carry up to the mark—fairly actually.
“We did nearly the whole lot. We dropped in a BluePrint 347 Stroker Crate Engine, a brand new Tremec Magnum six-speed, a Moser rear finish, model new Nitto Tires, new radiator, RideTech suspension, and seats and belts from Standing Racing.
“Tommy Keeter with KPE Racing, Brian Havens, and Chase Havens—which, Brian and Chase are a father and son workforce too, which is cool—helped me construct the automotive.
“It was very nice to have the ability to name associates—and I really name them associates—at locations like BluePrint, Silver Sport Transmission, RideTech, and Summit Racing to assist me with this.”
Now, What In regards to the Problem You Made, How’d it Start?
(Laughing) “Bourbon! That’s what prompted this!
(Much more laughing) “Thanksgiving final yr, got here again dwelling, hanging out with the previous man—having a number of cocktails—and the age-old debate obtained began of ‘Who’d win in a race?’
“Dad’s a diehard Ferrari man. He’s obtained a Modena 360—and he thinks that factor can most likely exit and beat an F1 automotive. (Laughing, once more)
“I mentioned, ‘Hear, take it and I’ll beat you in that previous Mustang amassing mud on the market.’
“I used to be overly assured, clearly. And I wakened the subsequent day with a hangover—panicking. I’m within the automotive business and knew the one method I used to be going to drag this off was by my community. The primary name I made was to Kyle Fickler—a very good good friend and probably the most in-deep race automotive guys I do know.
“So it was type of a direct ‘What do we have to do to the automotive?’ factor, attempting to get it up to the mark as shortly as attainable.”
OK…Did You Win?
(Lengthy heavy sigh) “I…misplaced…by 4 thousandths of a second. It damage. It damage actually dangerous.
“The previous man tried to be good and console me a bit bit. (Laughing) However I used to be indignant. On the identical time although, somebody informed me that Rocky really misplaced to Apollo Creed within the first film.
“And to be trustworthy, we positioned rather well within the total race in opposition to the opposite courses. So the truth that I used to be the one automotive pre-2000 that slugged it out with a lot newer, costlier autos was fairly cool.
“I feel it tells a fairly good story about how, with the efficiency manufacturers that we labored with, what they’ve to supply in bringing autos as much as immediately’s requirements. Not solely is the automotive aggressive now, it’s simply a variety of enjoyable to drive round and do issues with.”
What’s Subsequent for BOOSTane?
“The very first thing we did after Texas was ship the Mustang as much as Washington D.C. for the SEMA Rally.
“As a result of what lots of people didn’t notice is that once I raced it from Fort Stockton to Sanderson, I ran on 93 octane pump fuel plus our BOOSTane gasoline additive. However on our method again, we really ran a totally artificial, 100 octane E-fuel, that I formulated based mostly off of repurposed pharmaceutical byproducts, greenhouse fuel reclamation, wooden biomass—so a real, different gasoline that’s not ethanol.
“We took it as much as D.C. to say ‘Hey look, we’re the automotive aftermarket; we take pleasure in innovating. Right here’s a 1969 Mustang that has no proper to be within the dialog of carbon offset, but right here it’s—mainly competing with a carbon footprint much like a brand new electrical car.
“What retains our lights on is our additive expertise that transforms pump gasoline as excessive as 116 octane, an actual race gasoline different.
“However the brand new artificial gasoline is a challenge that I’ve been engineering for a number of years now. I don’t have the finances that Shell or Sunoco have, however I do assume it’s work that the automotive aftermarket must be part of. “
What’s Subsequent for the Mustang?
“The truth that I’ve that story with my dad after which instantly going to D.C. and being type of a mascot for shielding our business—the dang factor already has so many cool tales to it, I couldn’t see letting it go.
“I’ve a variety of plans: Sizzling Rod Energy Tour, Mustang Week, Autocross occasions, and hopefully it lands on the SEMA Present within the ‘Future Applied sciences’ space—which it must be, a 1969 Mustang working on a totally artificial gasoline.
(Laughing) “With all the electrical retrofits, you’ll see a giant ‘ole V8 representing future improvements.
“So, I’m not eliminating her.”
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You’ll be able to hear extra from this interview in the OnAllCylinders Podcasts part.
Wish to study extra about race gasoline options and the way forward for artificial fuels in efficiency functions? Take a look at the BOOSTane web site and see what’s new.
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