DCCA Welcomes Visitors to Ford Day at The 1998 Ethanol Expo

19 August 1998
DCCA Welcomes Visitors to Ford Day at The 1998 Ethanol Expo
    SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Aug. 18 -- Ford Motor Company's
ethanol vehicles will be in the spotlight on Wednesday, Aug. 19 as
the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs (DCCA) and the
Illinois Corn Growers Association welcome visitors to the seventh annual
Ethanol Expo at the 1998 Illinois State Fair.
    Ford Day activities will feature a representative from Ford Motor Company
answering questions and discussing the company's new flexible fuel vehicles.
    Norm Sims, DCCA Director, said the Ethanol Expo is an excellent
opportunity for residents of the nation's largest ethanol-producing state to
learn more about E-85 -- a clean renewable fuel.  "DCCA works closely with
automobile manufacturers like Ford to promote the development of new ethanol-
powered vehicles.  We welcome this opportunity to show fairgoers both the E-85
vehicles they can buy today, and those they can look for in the future."
    Ford Day's big attraction this year is the 590-horsepower Mustang Super
Stallion, a concept car conceived by Ford engineers to demonstrate the
performance potential of flexible fuel vehicles running on ethanol.  When
fueled with E-85, the Mustang Super Stallion accelerates from 0-60 mph in just
4.3 seconds and completes a quarter mile in 12.7 seconds at 112.8 mph.  Its
supercharged, flexible fuel V8 engine gives this muscle car an estimated top
speed of 170 mph.
    Visitors to the Ethanol Expo will also see examples of Ford's other
ethanol-powered production vehicles, including the E-85 Taurus and the new
E-85 Ranger, as well as the pre-production E-85 Windstar.
    Ford has produced Taurus sedans capable of running on E-85 since 1994.  In
1996, the Taurus flexible fuel engine was optimized for use with E-85 fuel.
This year alone, Ford produced more than 12,000 of the vehicles, which are
built at Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant.  The State of Illinois and local
governments purchased more than 300 of these Ford E-85 vehicles.
    The E-85 Windstar minivan is currently being tested by Ford in an
extensive test and demonstration program that includes 15 pre-production vans.
The State of Illinois and the State of Wisconsin each are currently testing
and demonstrating four of the vans, the Illinois Corn Growers Association is
testing one van and the U.S. Postal Service in DeKalb is testing six vans in
its fleet -- the first time the Postal Service has used vehicles capable of
operating on E-85 fuel.
    The Ford Ranger will be capable of operating on E-85 for Model year 1999.
The flexible fuel Ranger, which will begin production on August 17, will have
the same 3.0 liter V6 used in the Taurus and Windstar E-85 vehicles.
    Ethanol Expo is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily during the Illinois State
Fair.  Expo is located on the east side of the fairgrounds just north of the
Lincoln Stage.