By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I caught up with Steve Strope of Pure Vision over in the Mopar booth yesterday. Looks like the Hammer of Fast and Furious fame got a new motor…

This weekend, I took a tour of Chevron’s research and technology campus in Richmond, CA. I was there with a bunch of other journalists, and while it wasn’t the most riveting experience I’ve ever had, it was definitely informative. Along with the tribology lab—where they study the effects of friction on metal—we got to see both the engine research center and the outdoor area where cars are put through tests intended to mimic real-world driving conditions. Basically, the company wanted to demonstrate to the assembled media that it’s Techron Concentrate Plus fuel additive cleans engines better than anything else, and they had tons of documentation—before and after pics of dirty/clean valves and such—to prove it. To be perfectly honest, I was was already kind of inclined to believe them, because when my Dad’s Volvo 240 developed an irritating hesitation problem, the dealership recommended using the Techron treatment. It actually fixed the issue, and the old man swore by the stuff after that.

By far my favorite part of the tour was the Q & A with the engineers afterward. They all acknowledged that making a gas treatment sexy—especially when customers are already ruffled about paying four dollars a gallon—is a pretty tall order, and that most consumers will probably decide on which gas additive purchase based on the picture on the label. I suggested putting a dragon with fire coming out of its nostrils on the Techron packaging, but I can’t imagine we’ll be seeing that suggestion implemented any time soon. As we were leaving, we were informed that Chevron was sending us all a case of Techron, and I’m totally going to use it in my Jag. What are your experiences with fuel additives, and are there any that you swear by?