A total of 22 cars ran at Motegi on Monday, the day after Sunday’s final round of the 2022 season, to test the ETS Racing Fuels second-generation biomass product all runners in both the GT500 and GT300 classes will use next year.
However, while the new fuel did not appear to have a dramatic impact on the cars’ performance, its odour was one of the main talking points of the test.
One driver described the smell of the fuel as “like kerosene” while another likened it to “a mix of gasoline and oil from a racing go-kart”.
There were also suggestions that some drivers were struggling with eye irritation when following another car closely, as the exhaust fumes of the car ahead entered the cockpit.
Honda SUPER GT project leader Masahiro Saiki said that the strong-smelling fumes were likely a result of the fuel not being fully burned, noting a similar trend during testing with Super Formula’s 2023 development car.
“The smell is a little strong [compared to gasoline], perhaps because the raw materials used are different,” said Saiki. “I think they are trying to mix materials extracted from various bio-based raw materials to meet high-octane standards.
“Some fuel manufacturers say that the smell can be changed by changing the raw materials, although there’s also the matter of cost control to consider.
“If we can burn the fuel properly, then the smell should disappear. If the fuel is burned completely, nothing will be left.”
The fastest time of the test, a 1m37.285s, was set by the #23 NISMO Nissan Z of Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda during the morning session, while Team Studie BMW man Seiji Ara set the pace in the GT300 class on a 1m46.766s.
However, teams ran using a mixture of carbon-neutral and regular fuel throughout the day, making laptime comparisons academic.
“I had no uncomfortable feelings using the carbon-neutral fuel,” Quintarelli told the official SUPER GT website. “The GT500 car has what you could call an ‘aggressively designed engine’ with a lot of advanced technologies applied in it.
"So, I thought that changing the fuel used would result in some changes, but in fact the changes were so small that I wouldn’t have noticed them if I hadn’t been told about the fuel change.
“Of course, there were careful adaptations made to the mapping, but I didn’t have any uncomfortable feelings about the acceleration response we drivers want. I thought that was rather incredible.”
SUPER GT has outlined an intention to use imported carbon-neutral fuels through the 2026 season before switching to a domestically-produced alternative in 2027, should one become available by then.
Additional reporting by Kenichiro Ebii
