Petrol powered cars today
A confusers report 
In our modern world of electric car, electric boats, electric assist wind powered ships, electric powered gliders traveling around the world we have forgotten the use of oil except for lubrication.
A recent development has found that with distillation this substance we will call petrol can actually be used to power motor vehicles.
An early concept has just been developed and we tested this very unusual car.
The new car called the ‘Octane’ was built in the city of Detroit.
This city is easily accessible by train or boat on the hourly intercity trains etc. So if you want to see it is just a short trip in the 200 mph train.
The octane look much like the conventional electric car but it has a very large compartment in the front for the smelly oily petrol engine. On the other hand the space taken by the batteries is now available for baggage and passengers.
The prototype octane cost 3 times the price of today’s electric vehicles so it is still just a toy.
However it may cost less if it ever gets into production
The petrol powered motor is not new as it has been used in washing machines and some large industrial use where weight is not a factor
What is new is its use in cities for daily commuting.
The first thing when driving the ’octane is that it requires more than a flip of a switch to make the car operational.
It is first necessary to use a battery powered starter motor, or, to manually turn over the petrol powered motor.
The motor has to be turned over fast enough to allow the fuel and electric sparks to operate the ignition process(even when the car remains stationary)
And it roars into life with a lot of noise (perhaps they will find a way to reduce this noise all of a 80 decibels)
It has a gear box and a thing called a clutch which you have to depress and then a complicated system of selecting gear ratios with a stick is used.
One is marked first gear so this is selected and the clutch is released and the car stalled.
After three attempts later and with the motor speeded up it actually moved off and the complicated changing of the gear ratios was repeated till top speed of 20 mph was achieved.
At this point there was a lot of noise and scared the pants of the local pedestrians even scaring the odd electric vehicle driver off the road in case this monster did them damage.
Not too difficult to drive despite the complicated extras of the engine.
The octane is reasonably quiet on the inside but noisy on the outside especially when stopped at a traffic light. Here the driver may find it very disconcerting to find the motor still running, still consuming petrol and making a noise.
Our driver found no difficulty in maintaining the local speed limit or to drive back and forth across the city on a single tank of petrol. However it is necessary to take the car to a petrol retailer and get a few tins of petrol to fill the car up at home.
This could be a major annoyance to city commuters as they are used to charging their cars at home.
The petrol costs some 1/20 of a weekly wage so it is very expensive today but could reduce in time with mass distribution.
In city driving we got 10 miles per gallon so even comparing it to an average commuter power costs it is many times more costly to run.
‘Octane users will find there is many other extra costs involved such as oil, water , replacement of exhaust every few years.
A shock to the electric care owner who checks his brushes every few years
The cost and frequency of the ‘Octane’ repairs and maintenance will no doubt exceed the cost of battery replacement as experienced by the electric car user.
Confusers union has concluded the following
Advantages
1 greater range
2 faster speed (more accidents)
Disadvantages
1 higher cost of fuel
2 higher maintenance costs
3 air pollution
4 noise pollution
5 safety hazards when hitting the lighter electric cars the injury rate will soar
Perhaps the best way to conclude this report is to project the society in the future
1 Serious reduction in air quality
2 Massive Noise pollution
3 Electricity to cost more as off peak demand drops
4 effects on public transport because of their longer range the intercity services will suffer as will many of related industries
AND so confusers reports that they can never become a family car for every day transport:)