# 1950's Stage Tuning

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/1950s-stage-tuning/161404>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Tags:** mg\
**Created:** [March 19, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1950s-stage-tuning/161404 "2020-03-19T21:10:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Beancounter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/59ef9b/32.png) [@Beancounter](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Beancounter)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1950s-stage-tuning/161404/1 "2020-03-19T21:10:12Z")

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An interesting Autocar article on Stage Tuning (Hot Rodding) your MG TD from Stock (Stage 1, 58 HP) through Competition (Stage 3 - 5, Supercharged 90 HP).

[https://www.mg-cars.org.uk/mgtd/mgtd\_performing\_midgets.htm](https://www.mg-cars.org.uk/mgtd/mgtd_performing_midgets.htm)

Something that I found particularly interesting is that at Stage 2 (Street) you’re running on 50% alcohol and at Stage 3 (Competition) you’re running on 80% alcohol.  
Maybe we should be asking for more ethanol instead of less?

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**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1950s-stage-tuning/161404/2 "2020-03-19T21:19:33Z")

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E85 makes a good performance fuel. Race E85 is about 99 octane ((R+M)/2) and is very consistent in the mix. Pump E85 varies anywhere from 51% to 85% ethanol. For carb’ed engines that inconsistency is a BIG problem. For closed loop fuel injected engines, not so much.

Mileage will be far worse that on E10 but the cooling effect of pumping about 40% more liquid into the engine will help keep the engine cooler than running E10 or E0 gasoline. This is especially nice on turbo or supercharged engines.

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**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1950s-stage-tuning/161404/3 "2020-03-19T22:39:19Z")

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Significantly higher compression ratios would yield better fuel mileage with E85, but that is impractical when almost everyone buys E10.

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**Author:** ![Mustangman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/mustangman/32/44130_2.png) [@Mustangman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Mustangman)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 10:54pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1950s-stage-tuning/161404/4 "2020-03-19T22:54:55Z")

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Higher compression will improve mileage but not enough to match E10. Especially when cars are already being built with 11:1, 12:1 and higher that will still run on 87 octane E10. The gains diminish as you get closer to auto ignition… about 14 or 15:1.

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**Author:** ![oldtimer-11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e79b87/32.png) [@oldtimer-11](https://community.cartalk.com/u/oldtimer-11)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 2:37am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1950s-stage-tuning/161404/5 "2020-03-20T02:37:22Z")

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Indy cars were making 525-550 hp on 270 cubic inch 4 cylinder non supercharged engines in the early 50s on alcohol. Needed big fuel lines and big tanks,