Bentley has been talking about reducing its carbon emissions through the use of biofuels all year. It’s still unclear whether the luxury automaker will be forced to adhere to the new EU standards of 130 g/km of CO₂ by 2015, but Bentley has already announced its stated goal of emitting no more than 120g/km of CO₂ on a well-to-wheels basis by 2012. This goal runs under the assumption that the cars are running on biofuels such as ethanol. To make the goal possible (regardless of how probable it may seem), the automaker is expected to launch its first production ethanol model at the Geneva Motor Show in the spring of 2009.

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Here in the Northeast, you’re more likely to spot the Loch Ness monster in your neighbor’s kiddie pool than you are to find a fuel pump that dispenses E85 Ethanol, a situation that always makes me chuckle at the various “FLEXFUEL” badges I increasingly see on area vehicles. Well, as of this Thursday, June 26, people in Massachusetts will actually be able to fill their tanks with the biofuel at the first public E85 pump in the state. And for 85 minutes, they’ll be able to do so for 85 cents a gallon after the grand opening ceremonies at the Burke Oil station in Chelsea, MA. General Motors, purveyors of flex-fuel vehicles that in most cases rarely see a drop of the stuff, is sponsoring (we assume that means “paying for”) the 85-cent promotion, after which the price will go back up to its normal rate of $2.85/gallon. Nowadays, that doesn’t sound so bad at all. All the specifics can be found in the press release after the jump. Continued

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Although Ethanol itself has remained largely the same since the times of Henry Ford, thanks to Tom Quinn and his E-Fuel Corporation, there are now some interesting developments in the way this natural engine juice can be produced and dispensed.At a recent press event in NYC, Quinn and his associates revealed the EFuel100 MicroFueler - a new breed of fueling technology that lets drivers whip up their own ethanol at home. As GoodCleanTech points out, all you have to do is “dump in sugar, yeast, and water,” and you are good to go. Fitted with a 50-foot hose and an LCD touch screen, the MicroFueler isn’t terribly fastidious and will even churn out ethanol from alcohol in lieu of sugar.

“It’s almost third-grade science to make ethanol,” says Quinn, assuring skeptics and promising that this simple diet will yield a fuel output of 35 gallons per week. The EFuel100 will cost $9,995 and become available later this year.

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America’s super car company Saleen is showing a little green. Autoblog reports Saleen’s S5S Raptor, which debuts at the New York Auto Show this week, will run on ethanol and have a lightweight aluminum body. We only have an air brushed picture (above) to show you for now but will post pictures and more info on this 200 MPH beauty when we get to New York. The Raptor is a good example that petrolheads like Saleen (see video below the fold) can be green too.

Ethanol and aluminum technologies are green and, importantly, accepted by the super car community. Ethanol has lower energy and gets lower mileage than gasoline but a car can be tweaked to take advantage of the higher octane in ethanol to get more horse power. Use of lightweight aluminum saves fuel and it allows for higher speeds which is why sport car companies like Lotus, Ferrari and Tesla are using aluminum today.

We are still looking for a good, green reason why a car would need to go 200 MPH, though.

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What you see here is the TAC Stark, a Brazilian off-roader that aims to leave a smaller footprint. The lightweight 4×4 was planned to be the first flex-fuel gasoline/ethanol off-roader on the market, but when local suppliers forced the small upstart automaker to push back the launch date from last year to next, Mitsubishi jumped in with the Pajero TR4.

Although fuel consumption figures are not yet available, the Stark promises to economize its intake on either type of fuel thanks to lightweight construction with a tubular frame covered with plastic body panels. The diminutive jeep has a wheelbase barely 2.5 meters long, weighs just 1300kg, and is powered by a small Volkswagen engine. But while it may share more in common with a VW Beetle than any other truck on or off the road, the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine comes quickly to mind when looking at the Stark’s styling. See what we mean in our high-resolution gallery by clicking on the thumbnail images below.

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