Brazil emerging as leader in production of alternative fuels like ethanol

• When the slick green and black racing car slammed across the finishing line at the world's most famous race last month, the Le Mans 24 Hours, it may have finished only in 17th place but the team knew it had won a remarkable first.
• The Nasamax DM139-Judd had passed what is known the world over as a fiercesome endurance test - running not on petrol but on bio-ethanol, an alcohol fuel distilled in northern France from sugar beet and potatoes.
• If it hadn't been for an engine misfire, says Nasamax team manager John McNeil "we know what lap time we could have had, and we know it would have put us safely in the top ten - even the top six.
• The achievement is just one example of how booze-fuelled cars are lining up for poll position.
• Brazil became the centre of alternative fuel production in the 80s spurred by the oil shocks of the 1970s.
• The experiment reached its peak in 1985 when an astonishing 91% of cars produced that year ran on sugar-cane ethanol - the same fuel as the national spirit cachaca that makes the popular cocktail caipirinha.
• When the oil prices fell and sugar prices rose becoming more profitable to export, the homegrown demand for alcohol-driven cars dropped leaving the "pro-Alcool" drive looking like little more than a blip.
• Brazil still retains a network of refilling stations across the country, and particularly in Sao Paulo state where almost a quarter of the 180 million Brazilian population live.
• According to the 2004 Motor Trends Alternative Fuel Review, there are already two million flex-fuel cars in America which could be running on alcohol tomorrow - but there are only 200 stations in the whole of the US.