Nitromethane prices

[53' Stude]

Messing around looking at drag racing fuels and stuff. Wal Mart sells this for $80.70 A GALLON!

With all the silliness here lately and its Sunday: what the hay

 

[Linctex]

Wow - - prices have come down.
I remember when it was quite a bit north of $100 a gallon.

Back in the 70's and 80's - all of us RC airplane guys would mix our own 5%-10%-15%-20% nitro glow fuel.
At 10%, one gallon of nitro would make 10 gallons of glow fuel.

 

[danez_yoda]

we use that for R/C racing engines in boats.

40-70% in the high performance models. the rest is methanol and about 16% oil

 

[Kira]

I hope the stuff doesn't end up in Walmarters' windshield washer reservoirs.

 

[02SE]

If you took that cheap stuff to an NHRA event, you'd be fined for not buying from the 'Official' supplier.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted by 02SE
If you took that cheap stuff to an NHRA event, you'd be fined for not buying from the 'Official' supplier.


Is the official supplier still VP? I thought I read somewhere that most of it is coming out of China now.

 

[02SE]

Since '15 it's been Sunoco. I assume it will continue to be Sunoco next year. Sunoco branded, anyway.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted by 02SE
Since '15 it's been Sunoco. I assume it will continue to be Sunoco next year. Sunoco branded, anyway.


Makes sense. Ya I wouldn't think you could go into a Sunoco station and pick up a gallon of nitromethane or Green E15.

Is it still true that the Sunoco stuff is ~$1428 for a 42gal drum but the same 42gsl drum from Don Schumacher is $1008? I had to dig the find an article about the prices from earlier this year.

 

[02SE]

Without getting into NHRA drama, let's just say the price varies.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted by 02SE
Without getting into NHRA drama, let's just say the price varies.

Understood. I have no problem with someone making a profit, just don't like seeing teams getting priced out of the business.

 

[02SE]

It happens all the time, mostly due to the cost of the ever-changing regulations. Or unfortunately when enforcement of those regulations are not applied impartially, as happened at the finals this year.

 

[red7404]

a few years ago i was running 2 RC cars. my friend wanted to see what it would take to blow up an engine, as he had a pile of simi-junk engines. our trouble was we didnt have a a long straight away , about 60 ft. . so i mixed a batch of 60 %, 70%, 80%. at 60 the car would get to 47 mph, 70 48 mph. on 80% the front tires lifted, 50 mph i think you need a longer run to get enough heat in it to blow up the engine. this is VERY unscientific.

 

[theGripofBigMoney]

It used to be that Angus was the only one manufacturing CH3NO2. They sold it to VP and a couple of others who just filled their drums with it. It's my understanding that the EPA got involved putting lots of new regulations on the manufacturing of it. Now it's made in china and brought over here.
Lord knows at the expensive race parts we've turned into molten aluminum turds using that stuff. It's all fun until it goes south!

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted by red7404
a few years ago i was running 2 RC cars. my friend wanted to see what it would take to blow up an engine, as he had a pile of simi-junk engines. our trouble was we didnt have a a long straight away , about 60 ft. . so i mixed a batch of 60 %, 70%, 80%. at 60 the car would get to 47 mph, 70 48 mph. on 80% the front tires lifted, 50 mph i think you need a longer run to get enough heat in it to blow up the engine. this is VERY unscientific.


Unscientific, but fun.