That brings up a good point Sky. I can't remember- was ethanol commonly added to fuel during our younger days?

It seems to me it's only been around a few years, and that it was pushed as a way to reduce the amount of foreign oil we use.

There's an interesting article on wikipedia about ethanol, a lot of the chemistry went over my head, but check it out.

Ethanol fuel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maybe an interesting experiment (with no concern for the possible long term effects of fuel with ethanol)- what if we get two identical Super Cubs, both with the same Lycoming up front, both weighing the same, with equal weight pilots. Then we top the tanks. Now say one is "theoretically" Experimental so we can run auto fuel containing 10% ethanol in it- (There's plenty of Experimental Super Cubs nowadays, but lots of them are quite a bit lighter than a stock one) The other Super Cub in our test will run standard auto fuel with no ethanol.

Which one will get out of the shorter strip, which one will outclimb the other, and which one will go farthest at the same cruise speed?

Will there be any difference?

I don't know, but I'd like to see it done.