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Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Be Using 85 Octane Fuel

In high-altitude areas, 85 octane fuel is offered because it’s less likely to cause engine knock since the air is far less dense — but this specific octane is still advised against in the owner’s manuals of newer vehicles (as in, basically, cars made within the last 30 years).

That’s because of the construction between older and newer vehicles. Older engines had mechanical control of fuel injection and ignition timing — and that depended heavily on your manifold pressure. In higher altitudes, you’re not going to get the pressure you need because the ambient pressure is low.

Newer engines, though, have electronic fuel injection and ignition timing — which enables those newer engines to compensate for any low ambient air pressure. You’ll still lose power, but the engine is able to compensate for any losses. So, the problem won’t be quite as obvious as it would be with a car from, say, 1962.

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Putting 85 octane in your car probably won’t kill your engine, but it does have the possibility to cause problems — and to void your warranty in some cases.

Does Brad Keselowski Own One Single Suit Jacket? Jalopnik Investigates

NASCAR Cup Series driver Brad Keselowski has been a frequent feature of the motorsport news lately with his swap from Team Penske to a co-ownership and driver role at Roush Fenway. It’s a pretty massive career move for someone who has been with one team for over a decade. But that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about today. Instead, I want to discuss Mr. Keselowski’s suits.

Every time Brad Keselowski makes an appearance in the broadcast booth or during a press conference, I think to myself, “That’s a nice jacket.” Instead of opting for a regular black, navy, or gray suit, he’s usually sporting a nice plaid coat. But lately, saying that has turned into a bit of déjà vu. Haven’t I said this before?

As it turns out, I have. It appears that Brad Keselowski has one Nice Suit, and he wears it everywhere.

Here’s a photo from Keselowski’s recent Roush Fenway press conference:

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Here’s Keselowski in the booth on June 12, 2021:

Here’s a photo of Keselowski in the same suit jacket in March of 2019:

Unfortunately, my theory has been disproved. Mr. Keselowski has been seen in the booth wearing a blue suit with a very faint plaid pattern. But did he offer his other suit jacket to his boothmate? I’ll let you decide:

That said, it’s the same suit that he wore back in 2016:

And he also appears to own a striped blue suit jacket as well:

That striped suit made a reappearance in 2018:

2017 also brought us this snazzy checkered number:

Whatever the case — however many suit jackets Keselowski owns — I have to say that I respect playing favorites. I have about four outfits that I pack any time I go on a press trip, which I am sure people have noticed by now. When you find something nice that you like, I say stick with it. Go on and be your bad self, Brad. Maybe ask Roush for a slightly larger suit budget.

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Teen Gets Into A Car Then Drives Straight Into A Pool

An Infiniti G37xS gets a nice deep clean at the bottom of a pool.

A teen driver in Colorado likely learned a couple of good driving lessons on Thursday after they reversed an Infiniti G37xS into the deep end of a pool. The car may be a little wet, but the driver and their passenger are reported to be safe.

Police in Lakewood, Colorado, responded to a report of a car getting a deep clean at the bottom of a pool on Thursday.

Its driver, a teenager with a learner’s permit, accidentally put the car into reverse and sent it through a fence and into the pool, reports CBS 4 Denver.

Police cited the driver with careless driving but are happy to say that the teen and their adult occupant escaped the vehicle without injury.

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Of course, the police couldn’t help themselves and dropped a one liner that I feel so bad for giggling at:

Just FYI, the best line for this is “Check out our new Infiniti Pool”. Everyone else is battling for second place.

The responses on Twitter deliver even worse groaners.

Meanwhile, West Metro Fire Rescue posted a video of the extraction process for the car.

In it, the department shows its divers chaining up the Infiniti’s rear wheels to the winch and boom of a nearby wrecker. The car was then yanked out with the help of 2x4s.

It’s easy to roast the driver for the mistake, but we’ve all done a silly thing or two while learning how to drive, sometimes resulting in a crash. Hopefully, this teen isn’t deterred from getting behind the wheel again and now knows to make sure that they’re in the correct gear. They also likely learned the useful skill of how to escape a sinking car.

Meet The Cutest Rally Co-Driver In The World

When’s the best time to start your career as a rally co-driver? As with most things, I’d assume the younger the better — and that’s just what this dad has done with his daughter.

This video comes from Ridonkulous Rally Sports, a YouTube channel that shares videos of a family-run team’s efforts to conquer the local rally world. There are tons of great in-car shots from domestic American rallies for those of you that love events like the Southern Ohio Forest Rally or the Sno*Drift Rally that takes place in the winter.

But there are also plenty of videos of the family having fun, and that’s just what we have with this co-driver clip:

The short video is worth a watch. In it, a young girl has a book on her lap and takes it upon herself to direct the driver where he needs to go. She calls out a series of directions and numbers from her Things That Go book, occasionally agreeing with the driver when he lets her know they have to take a hairpin.

It ends with a wonderful sentiment: “When the kid wants to help, you let her help. When she asks to ride in the car when you’re pulling it in the shop for the night, you give her a ride, even if it’s only a 20 sec ride. When she climbs in and turns that red light on and then pulls out her pace notes all on her own, you always 100% take that freakin ride! Never get so busy that you miss the little things. The most important things.”

Kudos to you, dad. It sounds like you’re raising a future rally champion! And for everyone else at home: get your kids involved with your cars. Many of my favorite childhood memories revolve around being included in my family’s automotive pursuits. Bring the little ones in and have some fun.

Racing Pioneer Janet Guthrie Born 83 Years Ago Today

Janet Guthrie received a degree in physics from the University of Michigan back in 1960, and she started her career working as an aerospace engineer. She made it through the first round of eliminations for the Scientist-Astronaut program that was a precursor to Project Apollo. She was a pilot and a flight instructor. In the meantime, she was taking her Jaguar XK140 out to the race track to compete in Sports Car Club of America events, where she often did the repair work on her own machines. And somehow those aren’t even the coolest things Guthrie did, because she was the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.

(Welcome to Today in History, the series where we dive into important historical events that have had a significant impact on the automotive or racing world. If you have something you’d like to see that falls on an upcoming weekend, let me know at eblackstock [at] jalopnik [dot] com.)

I have to say that Guthrie is one of my personal heroes. I first learned about her through the Dinner with Racers podcast and was blown away by the stories she told and by how articulate and generous she was with her thoughts. I immediately bought her autobiography, Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle, and continued to be blown away by how eloquent her writing was. I still refer to that book when I describe racing scenes in my fiction stories. She’s one of the few drivers I’d love to meet, just purely from a fan’s perspective.

Guthrie was born on March 7, 1938 in Iowa, but her family moved to Miami, Florida soon after, where she developed a love for all things airplane. That led her to pursue a career as both a pilot and an engineer—both of which were highly unlikely careers for a woman of her era. It certainly primed her for some of the chaotic experiences she’d have on the race track years later.

But the big thing I want to talk about today is her Indy 500 runs. Yes, the NASCAR races in which she competed weren’t exactly welcoming a woman with open arms, but when Guthrie started pursuing Indianapolis, she came up against one hell of a rule: no women were allowed in the pit lane. That didn’t stop her from pursuing a stunning, if brief, career.

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“It seems I was born adventurous and grew up insufficiently socialized,” Guthrie said back in 2017. And I’ll be damned if I don’t love her all the more for it.

I have plans for a more expansive Guthrie feature in the future, but I’ll end with this. Her sixth-place finish in a 1977 NASCAR race at Bristol is still tied for the best finish by a woman in the sport. Her ninth place in the 1978 Indy 500 was achieved despite a fractured wrist. Legendary racer A. J. Foyt got so sick of hearing people complain about Guthrie’s inability to race due to her gender that he lent her his car—objectively the quickest in the field—and proved she could damn well qualify for the Indy 500 if she wasn’t driving an insufficient car.

Guthrie built her own engines. She did her own bodywork. She’d haul her car to the track herself and sleep behind the wheel to save money. And she did it for 13 years before she got her big break in Indianapolis and NASCAR. But she denies that it was uncomfortable.

“It was doable,” Guthrie said to the Indianapolis Star with a shrug. “If your desire is strong enough, anything is doable.”

We Want To Hear Your Electric Car Ownership Stories

Did you own a Ford Ranger EV back in the ‘90s? Do you have a Nissan Leaf in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from a fast charger? Do you keep your Tesla Roadster in Manhattan, even in a blackout? The world of EVs is full of interesting stories, and we want to hear yours!

Every week, we’ll be posting an interview with an owner of an electric vehicle. We want our coverage of EVs to be practical. We want it to represent reality, not the hype that comes from Silicon Valley startups, or the untethered hope of over-eager politicians, or the pessimism of head-in-the-sand retrogrouches who think you just can’t own an EV in this day and age.

That means we want to hear from rural EV owners, from apartment-bound EV owners, first adopters, and veteran drivers.

But to get those stories we need to hear from you! We want to interview you for this site and get your story out. Maybe you worked at one of the California utilities that got EV fleet vehicles decades ago, or you were part of that BMW 1 Series lease program. Half of the world has forgotten these things even existed.

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We want:

Your name
What car do you own? (If you owned a car in the past, let us know what years!)
Where do you live with it?
How and where do you charge it?
How was buying it?
How long have you had it?
How has it lived up to your expectations?
A photo of your car

If you want to be interviewed, please let us know an email with an re: EV Ownership Stories to tips at jalopnik dot com!