Oberhallau: Race premiere with synthetic gasoline
STEP TO THE PUBLIC At the Oberhallau hill climb, a prominent project group demonstrates one of the possibilities of synthetic fuel. To this end, Marcel Fässler, Beni Hotz and Neel Jani complete demo runs in racing sports cars.
fueled with synthetic fuel. Gasoline
The initiator of the project to develop and distribute a synthetic fuel is Markus Hotz, former racing driver and founder of Horag Hotz Racing AG in Sulgen. With Mario Illien, an engineer known from Formula 1 and the IndyCar series as an ingenious engine builder, the Thurgau native was able to inspire a technician who is always forward-looking. Entrepreneur and patron Fredy Lienhard also supports the ambitious project.
Premiere in front of audience
The project group will make its first public appearance at the always well-attended hill climb in Oberhallau on August 27 and 28, 2022. The aim and purpose of the exercise is to bring a fuel technology that is hardly known in this country closer to a larger audience. Politicians and people with various interests in this topic are invited to participate.
Racing pros Marcel Fässler and Neel Jani as well as Benjamin Hotz will be driving various Ligier race cars, whose production-based engines are made to run on the newly developed synthetic gasoline, uphill.
As good as normal racing gasoline
Although these are purely demonstration runs out of competition, the two Le Mans winners and the sports car driver Benjamin Hotz, who will stand in for Fässler on Sunday, will certainly cover the 3,000-meter track at a brisk pace in the sports prototypes that are actually designed for circuit racing.
Markus Hotz: "Our revolutionary campaign is intended to show what the fuel available to us from this year can do. It is made from renewable biogenic materials and can also be used in existing race cars without mechanical modification."
For everyday life and the race track
Even though research on synthetic fuels has been going on for some time, the general public still knows little about the possibilities offered by this new technology, the project group argues.
Their non-fossil fuel for gasoline engines consists of 100% regenerative biogenic materials. Switzerland, which does not have its own circuit, might therefore be able to run full-scale hill climbs or slaloms with small amounts of available fuel in accordance with FIA regulations.
In addition, the gasoline, which is CO2-neutral up to 85% and has a knock resistance of 97.5 RON, could immediately support the energy transition in the area of mobility with internal combustion engines without the need for a new filling station infrastructure. The price will be in the lower range of commercially available racing gasolines.
Do something, not just talk
The project is being supported by renowned scientists and automotive experts. In addition to the aforementioned Petrol Heads Hotz, Illien and Lienhard, Christian Bach from EMPA and Prof. Dr. Andreas Herrmann from the Institute for Mobility at the University of St. Gallen are among the contributors.
All those involved - including the Le Mans winners and endurance world champions Fässler and Jani, who are taking part in Oberhallau - are committed out of personal conviction and on their own account. Their common motto is: "Do something, don't just talk."
