Alcohol Is Gasoline

This stuff is so good I don’t even need to take the cap off to fuel my car.

Ethanol fuel for automobiles has been around since many decades — at least since 1978, when Fiat's Brazilian branch developed an ethanol-fueled Fiat 127 in an attempt to cope with the Oil Crisis — with Brazil leading the way in this type of fuel by taking advantage of its vast expanses of sugarcane that can be easily distilled into cane alcohol. While ethyl alcohol packs less energy per volume than gasoline, its many similar physical properties (low density, low boiling point, high volatility, very high flammability and very high anti-knocking index) have made it a very much viable fuel source for combustion engines, which can even be modified to use both gasoline and alcohol indistinguishably, to the point that all cars in Brazil are legally required to run on at least E25 (25% alcohol and 75% gasoline).

However, ethanol fuel still has issues and pitfalls that have prevented its worldwide adoption. First, because alcohol is usually produced by fermenting agricultural crops, there is a very real possibility that a widespread adoption of ethanol fuel might greatly drive up demand of staple foods such as potatoes, corn, wheat or sugarcane and thus greatly increase their price, which could compromise the entire world's food supply; second, in order to run on alcohol, a whole series of engine modifications must be undertaken such as ignition timing re-mapping, special fuel lines, special injectors and alcohol-resistant seals and treatments; and third, because alcohol packs less energy per volume than gasoline, that means it has about 30% less fuel mileage.

And this is where fiction often falls flat at accurately portraying usage of ethanol fuel — from failing to acknowledge that running a gasoline-only car on ethanol fuel may corrode it internally and risk causing a catastrophic failure, to comically inaccurate depictions such as literally pouring a bottle of whiskey into a car and having it run normally.

Sometimes this is used as a gag about how ridiculously strong the liquor is. Another common gag is that the drink is so potent, using it as fuel actually causes the engine to run better (or at least faster) than it should be able to with regular fuel.

A subtrope of Artistic License – Cars, Artistic License – Chemistry, Bizarre Beverage Use, and Artistic License – Engineering. Compare Gasoline Lasts Forever, another trope involving last ditch efforts to get a car to run. Compare also Booze Flamethrower.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• One Piece: Inverted with Franky, as he needs cola in order to use most of his robotic attacks. He has a small fridge located in his abdomen, and he can store up to three bottles at a time.

Comic Books

• Uncle Scrooge: A variant (in that it does not actually involve alcohol) occurs in "Chugwagon Derby" by Carl Barks. Scrooge and Donald are competing in a vintage car rally and Donald attempts to sabotage Scrooge's car by bribing a gas station attendant to fill Scrooge's tank with contents of a black barrel he points at, even though the attendant tells him that the barrel doesn't contain gasoline. After he fills the tank, Scrooge's car takes off like a rocket, including belching flames.
  Scrooge: Man! You must have fueled this car with T.N.T.!... But, then, these old crates will run on almost anything!
  Attendant: I'll say! That one's running on weed spray!
• Werner uses a variant of this in Ouhauerha!, namely methylic alcohol, but as a byproduct of the blackberry liquor his boss Röhrich once made. Werner remembers him say that if he filled it into his moped, it'd go off like greased lightning. Later in the same book, Werner and Andi first rediscover it as an enviroment-friendly fuel, then they decide to build a car around an old radial engine from a warbird and run it on methylic alcohol. In the next book, the vehicle is not only complete but raced against a Bentley Blower.

Fan Works

• Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space has an off-hand mention amongst the Long List of cars on the Futuristic Superhighway, where we have cars made from soybeans that ran on grain alcohol, and government monstrosities that ran on garbage.

Films — Animation

• The Adventures of Tintin (2011): Tintin and Captain Haddock are almost out of fuel when flying a sea plane through a thunderstorm. In a last desperate gambit, Tintin suggests Haddock pour the medicinal spirits in the planes first aid kit into the fuel tank, hoping it will enable them to fly just a bit further and give them the opportunity to land. Unfortunately, Haddock had already drunk them. Inspired by Tintin's comment that they are running on fumes, he instead forces himself to belch into the tank, his breath already being established to be laced with booze. Sure enough it proves so potent it not just restarts the engine but causes it to catch fire.
• The Rescuers: Played With. At the climax Luke's "swamp juice" is used as to start Madame Medusa's swamp mobile (which previously wasn't getting any gas) so the heroes can escape with Penny.
• Werner - Das muss kesseln! re-uses the "blackberry methyl" idea from the books (see the comic books section), but with a half-different story. After Farmer Horst tells them about an American warbird that crashed nearby in the war, Werner and Andi decide to salvage one of its radial engines, bring it back to life and build a vehicle around it. The reason why they use methylic alcohol is because the engine requires 150-RON fuel. This time, the entire vehicle is built as a reaction upon losing a race against a Bentley Blower with their ice sled. And the "blackberry methyl" disaster in Röhrich's garden happens after they have acquired the engine, thereby offering Werner and Andi the high-octane fuel they needed.

Films — Live-Action

• Back to the Future Part III: Subverted. Stuck in the old west with no gasoline to power the DeLorean, Doc Brown and Marty attempt this using the strongest liquor they were able to get their hands on. However, all it accomplishes is blowing out their fuel injector.
• The Day After Tomorrow: Discussed. When the British scientists run out of fuel for their generator, one suggests using a bottle of scotch. The head scientist calls him mad for wanting to use a twelve year old scotch for fuel. He then reveals glasses suggesting they drink it instead.
• Get Out & Get Under: Exaggerated. Harold needs gas for his car when he sees a man shoot heroin in the corner. Striking an idea, Harold steals the needle and pours the drug into the car's tank. It not only starts the engine, but suddenly causes the car to speed off by itself, sending Harold on a wild out of control ride.
• The Legend Of The Drunken Master:
  • Inverted. The climax of the film takes place at a metalworking factory, which has small containers of kerosene used to heat up the fires enough to melt steel. Against the Final Boss, the hero Wong Fei-hung is seemingly outmatched... until he goes ahead and drinks the kerosene to activates his Drunken Master abilities.
  • One (cut out) outtake of the epilogue had Wong suffering badly for that choice, because drinking alcohol with ''that'' high a proof turned out to give him brain damage.
• Down Periscope: Played With. At the climax, the Stingray's chief mechanic pours a bottle of whiskey inside of the (diesel) submarine's gas tank to thin the mixture and make the sub go faster. There's some Truth in Television, as alcohol possesses coolant and anti-detonation properties which, when added to the fuel mixture, allows some forms of combustion engines to be operated at higher than normal power levels. It's also worth noting that he pours himself and the engineer's mate a shot each before dumping the rest into the engine.
• Lawless: At one point, Jack and Forrest run out of gas, which they solve by emptying a jar of moonshine into the gas tank. This gets the car up and running.
• Gamer: In an particularly exaggerated example John "Kable" Tillman is a wrongfully accused death row inmate who must escape from a televised death match against other inmates in which his actions are controlled remotely by a teenage "gamer" through nanites implanted in Tillman's brain. An organization called "Humanz" is pulling strings to aid Tillman in his escape, and have smuggled vodka into his prison for him to use as vehicle fuel. Prior to the match Tillman drinks the whole large bottle to disrupt the nanites and his "gamer's" control over his actions. When combat begins Tillman makes a dash for an abandoned car park where he pukes the alcohol into a 1973 Chevrolet C20 Fleetside gas tank, urinates in the tank, hotwires the car, and escapes with the car. Regular Vodka undiluted by... other fluids... is not flammable under normal conditions.
• The Gods Must Be Crazy 2: Early on, the bushplane's engine starts sputtering in midair. The pilot grabs a bottle of booze (to the passenger's horror) and proceeds to refuel the plane in flight.
• Played with in October Sky, the boys need some kind of liquid stabilizer for their rocket fuel to stop it from exploding. Gasoline is dismissed as it is too volatile, but alcohol is perfect. They get some from a Hillbilly Moonshiner.

Literature

• Ringworld: There’s no petroleum or other ready source of long-chain hydrocarbons on the Ringworld; being as it’s an artificial ring around a star built comparatively recently, its builders never thought to put any in it and there hasn’t been enough time for it to develop naturally. However, agriculture is a thing on the Ringworld, so once Ring civilizations reached the level of sophistication needed to build internal combustion engines, they designed them to run on alcohol.
• Trail of Lightning: Given global industrial collapse, gasoline is unavailable. Maggie runs her truck on pure alcohol with no mention of engine modifications.
• The Stainless Steel Rat for President. The title character is quite enamoured of the booze on the planet Paraiso-Aqui, and thinks its outrageous that they use ethanol to power their vehicles instead of making more of the stuff.

Live-Action TV

• 1000 Ways to Die: Inverted. A fugitive tries to get drunk by drinking the gasoline from his motorcycle, only to throw up on his campfire and burn himself to death.
• Ark II: One episode has the Ark team encounter starving farmers, who seem capable of producing sufficient grains, namely wheat and corn. However, the local magnate, Lord Lesley, has his thugs terrorize the farmers, and seize their grain stores to synthesize the grain alcohol that powers their vehicles.
• Around The World In 80 Days 1989: In this 1989 miniseries starring Pierce Brosnan and Eric Idle, the heroes travel from France to Italy in a mini-airship called the Purple Cloud, but run out of fuel halfway and land somewhere in the Alps. Things look bleak until Fogg has the idea of pouring the Cloud's bottle of emergency brandy into the fuel tank. While Passepartout splutters in horror at the prospect of being stranded on an Alp without any brandy, the Cloud takes off again
• The Beverly Hillbillies: In one early episode Jed and Jethro want to go to town, only to discover their faithful truck is empty. Jed resorts to pouring Granny's homemade hooch into the tank. Not only does it work, but its so potent that the truck literally shoots off like the rocket the second Jethro starts the engine.
• The Drew Carey Show: One episode Lewis and Oswald trying to create a beer-powered lawnmower as a promotion for Buzz Beer. All we see is it backfiring.
• The Dukes of Hazzard: Several episodes mention Uncle Jesse's old moonshine is capable of efficiently powering a car. It's specific to his recipe, though.
• Knight Rider: Justified in one episode, Michael and KITT's Mystery of the Week requires them to enter as racers in an alternative fuels competition. One of the competitors is a group of Hillbilly Moonshiners who have converted their car to run on high-proof alcohol. Mechanically inclined moonshiners really do sometimes do this.
• Matt's alleged car in Life in Pieces episode "Interruptus Date Breast Movin'" is so broken that the only thing that starts it is tequila. And by the end of the episode, it bursts into flame.
• Mythbusters: The team tested this in "Moonshiner Myths". They concluded that it is possible for a short while, however, only with extremely high concentrations of ethanol (192 proof); likewise, burning ethanol isn't as efficient or good for the engine as regular fuel. A more detailed summary of the results can be found here.
• The New Avengers: In "Emily", the Avengers are attempting to transport a car to a forensics lab. When an irate farmer shoots at them, he punctures the fuel tank and all the petrol leaks out. Tasked with finding fuel, Purdey and Gambit locate a Hillbilly Moonshiner. After knocking the moonshiner out, they take six gallons of his potent hooch (leaving cash behind to pay for it). They use this to fuel the car to get to their destination.

Tabletop Games

• BattleTech: Fluff of some ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles has them able to run on multiple fuel sources, from gasoline to kerosene to ethanol. This has no in-game effects, except as a Hand Wave for abstracting a bunch of fiddly details that would make gameplay needlessly annoying.
• Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk 2077: Justified example: because of energy crisis issues, many vehicles in the setting utilize a blend of energy-dense alcohols named CHOOH-2 as fuel. (In real life, CH3OH is the formula of methanol). The issue of taking from the world's food supply to make fuel was solved by having it made from a special genetically engineered grain that is supposedly highly nutritious, but not even the most powerful world elites will even dare using for food.
• GURPS After the End has rules for ethanol-powered vehicles, since gasoline is basically nonexistent. However, it's not as simple as pouring booze into a gas-burner's car. Vehicles need the engine converted to run on ethanol, and need monthly overhauls to keep the gas lines from corroding.
• Nuclear Renaissance has alcoholic fuel plentiful, due to bio-engineered yeasts that make it (along with things like tyre-grade rubber, etc.) so most engines are usually built specifically to use the alcohol. Yes, there are also species which produce drinking alcohol.
• Twilight: 2000: In post-limited nuclear war Europe, many vehicles which used to run on gasoline have been altered so that they can use ethanol.
• Warhammer: Some of the engines developed by the Engineers' Guild in Zhufbar are adapted to run on the alcoholic conceptions of the Brewmasters.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • Orks are an odd example — their vehicle fuel, while not especially high-grade, is genuinely made for that purpose. The Orks are just tough enough to drink the stuff anyway. Deff Skwadron even depicts Ork aircraft as having their fuel lines running through their cockpits, in case the pilot wants a quick drink mid-flight.
  • Inverted with the Fenrisian mead of the Space Wolves, which supposedly uses jet fuel as an ingredient (thanks to their physiology, Space Wolf drinking contests are less who's left standing and who can get drunk first).
  • The Imperial Guard's vehicles are designed to run on anything flammable, from fossil fuels and refined gas giant vapors to alcohols and even wood in some sources, as the STCs used to produce them were designed for use on self-sufficient colony worlds. In the 41st millennium, that versatility allows the Imperial war machine to keep running in spite of the Administratum's literal tons of red tape.

Toys

• The Model Dockyard Locomotive, a 1843 train toy, used a real steam-powered engine fuelled with kerosene or, yes, alcohol.

Video Games

• Downplayed in Ashes Afterglow. Ethanol biofuel has largely replaced gasoline in several uses like combustion engines for vehicles and tools like the Jackhammer, but character dialogue notes often that the engines have to be either retrofitted or replaced entirely to run on biofuel.
• Back to the Future: The Game: Downplayed in Episode 1. Marty's main objective for most of the episode is breaking Doc out of jail by convincing the Emmett Brown of 1931 to finish a working prototype of his Jules Verne-inspired rocket-powered drill. Part of this mission is acquiring a barrel full of 190 proof grain alcohol from a Prohibition speakeasy. In this case, the alcohol on its own is not just poured into the rockets, it’s the main ingredient for preparing the rocket fuel. There's even a minigame where Marty must follow young Emmett’s instructions to synthesize the fuel, a process involving electrolysis-produced hydrogen getting vented into the distillation barrel and a chemical reaction catalyzed by bacteria-generated nitrogen. And while the result is more effective than the above-mentioned instance of 180 proof whiskey blowing out the DeLorean’s fuel injection manifold in Part III of the trilogy, the rockets are inevitably subject to Stuff Blowing Up, as Doc predicted.
• Far Cry: New Dawn: Ethanol is basically oil After the End. It's also in abundant stock by the villainous Highwaymen to the point that you will be regularly raiding them.
• Maptroid: You find a bottle of super strong vodka in some supplies that is used to fuel the ship.
• Rimworld: "Chemfuel" is implicitly ethanol-based, being synthesised from various food crops as well as lumber, and used for everything from running a generator to manufacturing explosives to fuelling one-use transport rockets. There is naturally a Game Mod that enables your colonists to drink it.

Web Original

• The Nostalgia Critic: Inverted in one of Hyper Fangirl's vlogs, where she says her boyfriend Devil Boner drinks straight gasoline to get drunk.
• Orion's Arm: Vecs (intelligent robots) on the planet of Trip often use alcohol as their fuel. This is a deliberate design choice to encourage vecs to interact with biological people in pubs and similar places, leading to greater social harmony.

Western Animation

• Betty Boop: In "Musical Mountaineers," Betty Boop runs out of gas up in the mountains of, apparently, Appalachia. After overcoming the hostility of the locals with her performing skills, they agree to help her and pour "corn drippings" in her tank; in slang, "corn drippings" was a name for the liquid that came from silos in which corn was fermenting. Betty's engine starts right up, and the mountaineers wave as she drives away.^note With the model car Betty was shown using, this probably would have worked. But it would have been hell on the engine. What it does is get her to where she can make a phone call.
• Futurama: All of the robots are fueled by alcohol which many of them, especially Bender, take advantage of to drink incredible proportions (cleaner alternatives like mineral oil exist, but most prefer beer). Without alcohol in their system, they would begin to act like a drunk person. It's a plot point in one episode, that them inefficiently burning alcohol is the reason the future still has problems with global warming.
• Looney Tunes: In "Golddiggers of '39," Beans the Cat fills his car's radiator with what appears to be alcohol to get it going again after it conks out. The car goes at super speed as a result.
• Rick and Morty: At the start of the episode "Rickmancing the Stone", Summer takes Rick's flask, takes a swig, and then spits it into the air intake manifold to give the vehicle a nitrous boost.
• The Simpsons: Whilst struggling with temporarily giving up alcohol in Season 4 episode "Duffless", Homer spot's Ralph Wiggum's science project of an alcohol fueled car. He immediately has an Imagine Spot of him pumping "fuel" into both his car and his mouth.

Real Life

• It's become increasingly common in many countries for gasoline to be blended with small percentages of ethanol, which is commonly called "gasohol". This lets oil companies stretch the non-renewable resource and sell gas more cheaply. However, it's not recommended to put more than 10% ethanol in any vehicle not marked as being Flex-Fuel, as ethanol attracts water and can corrode the plastics in older engines.
• Since 1976, Brazil has been using ethanol (from sugar cane) fueled cars alongside gasoline powered cars. Gas stations have multiple pumps for "Alcool" and "Gasolina", specially once hybrids that run on both (either separately or combined) started to emerge in the 2000s.
• IndyCar racecars used to run on pure methanol for safety reasons (it's much easier to put out a methanol fire than a gasoline fire). In the early 2000s, they were re-engineered to use either a methanol-ethanol blend or pure ethanol (methanol burns with a nearly invisible flame, making it hard to know the extent of a blaze).
• Many soviet military vehicles were specifically designed so that in emergencies they could run on low grade fuels (though not as efficiently) including Vodka, including the Russian Tanks. Likewise many technical fluids used by the Soviet Army were ethyl alcohol-based. Generals accepting the inevitable that their soldiers would try to drink them ensured that mixtures used were safe to drink.
• The Tu-22 jet bomber of 1960 required a load of four hundred gallons of pure alcohol to act as an engine coolant. The fastest and cheapest way of producing this alcohol was to distil it from fermented grain. Russian Air Force personnel nicknamed it The Booze Carrier, and bases where the Tu-22 were stationed tended to get through a lot of coolant, very quickly. The last of the Flying Vodka Trucks were phased out of service in the early 1990's.
• Likewise the former East German made car Trabant is said to be able to run on any combustible liquid which includes alcohol. This spawned numerous jokes about the car's owners using plum brandy to fuel their cars.
• War Emergency Power allowed engines in military aircraft (particularly during World War II) to be run at higher power settings than the engine's maximum rated power. While this was accomplished via a number of methods, a common one was injecting a water-menthol blend into the fuel mixture. The alcohol was mainly used for its anti-detonation and coolant properties, allowing the engine to be operated at these higher settings with less risk to damaging vital components.
• Pre World War II record-breaking cars and aircraft usually ran ethanol mixtures for fuel, despite low energy content, due to poor octane rating of gasoline.
• The V-2 rocket, perhaps the most iconic and infamous of Germany's Wunderwaffen ("wonder weapons") concocted during the late stages of World War II, ran on "B-Stoff", a fuel mixture made up of 75% ethanol and 25% water. A single V-2 launch required the equivalent of about 30 metric tons of potatoes in order to distill enough ethanol (at a time when the country was experiencing dire food shortages), and at the height of the program, the V-2 consumed a third of Germany's entire alcohol production.
• Gas turbine engines are capable of burning nearly any combustible liquid. Taken to an extreme with the Chrysler Turbine Car which has been fueled with perfume and tequila among other things.

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