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The Leaded Fuel Disqualification

Chasing Greatness does not certify any record set on leaded gasoline. No exceptions.

Leaded Fuel — Disqualified

The Policy

Chasing Greatness will not certify any speed record set using fuel containing tetraethyl lead (TEL) or any other lead compound. Records set on leaded fuel may be noted for historical reference but will never be recognized by CG as a standing record.

Lead is a neurotoxin with no safe level of exposure. When leaded fuel burns in an internal combustion engine, lead particles are expelled through the exhaust directly into the surrounding environment — air, water, soil. In marine applications, this exhaust goes straight into the ocean. We are running these boats over open ocean, through marine ecosystems, past kelp forests and protected areas. Dumping lead exhaust into the Pacific is a hard line for us — same as chopping through kelp beds or running through MPAs.

We love breaking the rules but lead or chopping up kelp forests is a hard DF for us.

The Lead-Crime Effect

The removal of lead from the environment is the single most cost-effective crime reduction tactic. As a proactive measure, lead reduction is proven to permanently reduce crime in a way that reactive enforcement methods such as policing, prosecution, incarceration have not been able to achieve.

The relationship between lead and human harm is not new. In 15 BC, the Roman architect Vitruvius warned that "water ought by no means to be conducted in lead pipes, if we want to have it wholesome." Pliny the Elder called white lead "a deadly poison" in his Natural History (77 AD). Roman workers painting ships with lead-based ceruse wore loose bags over their faces to avoid breathing the dust. The danger was documented two thousand years ago — and largely ignored for two thousand years after.

The biological mechanism. Lead damages the prefrontal cortex — the brain region responsible for impulse control, decision-making, and emotional regulation. In the Cincinnati Lead Study, every 5 μg/dl increase in childhood blood lead was associated with a 30-48% increase in risk of arrest for violent crime. This was a prospective study — children were enrolled at birth and followed for over two decades. The relationship was not explained by poverty, parental education, or socioeconomic status. Lead operates independently of social factors. Reactive enforcement cannot fix neurological damage that occurred in childhood — it can only respond to its consequences. Removing lead prevents the damage from occurring in the first place.

In 2010, David O. Carpenter and Rick Nevin published a comprehensive review of the evidence in "Environmental Causes of Violence" (Physiology & Behavior). Synthesizing decades of research — from Needleman's landmark 1979 baby teeth study through Nevin's own earlier international trend analyses — the paper consolidated what the data had been showing for years: the total tons of lead added to U.S. gasoline overlaps with violent crime rates when shifted by a 23-year lag. The time it takes for a lead-exposed toddler to reach peak offending age. Lead went up, crime went up a generation later. Lead came down, crime came down a generation later.

Chart from Carpenter and Nevin (2010) showing USA Average Preschool Blood Lead overlaid with Juvenile Property Crime Arrest Rate on a 17-year lag
Carpenter & Nevin, Physiology & Behavior (2010): USA average preschool blood lead (black) and juvenile property crime arrest rate (red) on a 17-year lag. The curves track almost perfectly.

This was not a single study in one country. Nevin's 2007 international analysis examined nine nations — the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Finland, France, Italy, New Zealand, and West Germany — and found the same pattern in every one. Blood lead levels in preschool children explained 65% to 93% of the variation in crime rates, with an 18-23 year lag, across all nine countries. Each nation phased out leaded gasoline at different times under different regulations, and each nation's crime rates peaked and declined according to its specific lead timeline — not according to changes in policing, incarceration, or any other policy.

Cost Avoidance vs. Continuous Spend

In 2007, economist Jessica Wolpaw Reyes found that the phase-out of leaded gasoline in the United States was responsible for approximately a 56% decline in violent crime between 1992 and 2002. States that showed the largest declines in leaded gasoline also showed the largest reductions in crime. This held after controlling for policing levels, incarceration rates, poverty, demographics, and other variables.

The business case is straightforward: cost avoidance is superior to continuous spend. Lead abatement is a one-time investment that permanently removes crime from the system. Policing, prosecution, and incarceration are recurring costs that never resolve the underlying cause — they manage symptoms indefinitely. The U.S. spent over $80 billion per year on incarceration alone during the "tough on crime" era, yet the Brennan Center for Justice found that increased incarceration accounted for roughly 5% of the 1990s crime decline, and essentially 0% after 2000. Lead removal, a one-time proactive measure that cost a fraction of that, drove an estimated 56% of the decline. The difference is not incremental — it is an order of magnitude.

Peer-reviewed research published in Environmental Health Perspectives found that every $1 spent on lead hazard control returns $17 to $221 in benefits in cost from reduced crime, reduced healthcare costs, higher lifetime earnings, and fewer special education placements. By comparison, Chalfin & McCrary (2018) found that each $1 invested in additional policing generates $1.63 in reduced crime costs. Policing returns less than $2 on the dollar and must be spent again next year. Lead abatement returns $17 to $221 and does not need to be repeated. We often avoid the mitigation cost precisely when we would gain most from the avoided cost of crime.

The United Nations Environmental Programme estimated the global phase-out of leaded gasoline produces $2.4 trillion in annual benefits, prevents 1.2 million premature deaths per year, and averts 58 million crimes per year worldwide. Every year.

There is a harder point here. We habitually blame the criminal — the individual — for crime. But if a significant volume of crime can be completely removed through mechanical means — by taking lead out of gasoline, out of paint, out of pipes — then the traditional framing of personal moral failure becomes wildly inaccurate. A child whose prefrontal cortex was damaged by lead exposure before age two did not choose impulsivity. They were poisoned. The devil may not be in the person but in the pipes and the tanks.

And not all of those children became criminals. Most didn't. But lead stole their lives anyway — in IQ points they never got back, in attention spans that couldn't hold through school, in careers that never started, in earnings that never materialized. These were people who could have led meaningful, productive lives. Some would have been engineers. Teachers. Parents who raised healthy kids. Lead took that from them before they learned to read. The cost of leaded fuel is not measured only in crime statistics. It is measured in the millions of people who never became who they were supposed to be.

Performance Comparison

The only argument for leaded fuel is performance. The data does not support it.

Tetraethyl lead (TEL) is an octane booster — it prevents detonation (knock) in high-compression and turbocharged engines. It was discovered in 1921 and adopted over ethanol primarily because it was patentable and required tiny concentrations. Ethanol was a known anti-knock agent at the same time. The choice of TEL over ethanol was a commercial decision, not an engineering one.

Property 112 AKI Leaded (TEL) E85 Ethanol Methanol
Lead content TEL 0.18-0.27% None None
Octane (AKI) 112 105-113 ~116
Anti-knock mechanism Scavenges free radicals Reduced auto-ignition + charge cooling Reduced auto-ignition + charge cooling
Charge cooling effect None ~840 kJ/kg latent heat removal ~1,100 kJ/kg latent heat removal
HP gain (Forced Induction) Baseline +10-20% typical +15-25% typical
Fuel volume needed Baseline 30-36% more ~100% more (2x volume)
Marine environment impact Lead exhaust directly into ocean Biodegradable, non-toxic Biodegradable, low marine toxicity

The Dyno Data

On turbocharged engines — which is what every Mercury Racing QC4v is — E85 does not sacrifice power to achieve unleaded status. It makes more. The charge cooling effect of ethanol vaporization creates a denser intake charge, allowing more boost pressure without detonation. Back-to-back dynamometer tests consistently show 10-20% power gains over petroleum race fuel on the same engine at the same boost levels. On a turbo Miata with a GTX2867R, E85 showed a 34% increase in tunable power over pump gas. On a supercharged Ford 302, E85 made 829 hp vs. 787 hp on 93-octane with octane booster — a 42 hp advantage.

The trade-off is fuel volume. E85 requires 30-36% more fuel by volume for the same energy content. Methanol requires roughly double. For a record attempt, that means bigger tanks or more stops. This is a real engineering consideration and we are not going to pretend otherwise. But the trade of TEL for high-octane unleaded — accepting neurotoxic exhaust to avoid carrying more fuel — is one CG will never take.

Methanol goes even further — higher octane, better cooling, more power. The trade-off is the fuel system rebuild (methanol is corrosive to standard seals and aluminum) and the doubled fuel volume. For a single 60-minute marine record attempt, both are viable. E85 is the simpler conversion; methanol is the maximum-performance option.

Both E85 and methanol make equal or more power than leaded race fuel on turbocharged engines. The performance argument for TEL does not exist. No performance gain — real or imagined — justifies the degradation of human health and community safety.

Ethanol was a known anti-knock agent in 1921 — the same year TEL was discovered. The racing industry chose lead for the same reason the automotive industry did: it was patentable, cheap to add in small quantities, and no one was tracking the damage. A century later, the damage is tracked. The science is settled. The alternatives are proven. There is no engineering case for leaded fuel. There is only inertia.

What Fuels Are Leaded

Fuel Octane (AKI) Status TEL Content
Pump premium (91/93) 91-93 Unleaded None
Sunoco 104 104 Unleaded None — Sunoco's highest unleaded
E85 (85% ethanol) 105-113 Unleaded None
Methanol ~116 Unleaded None
Sunoco Standard 110 110 Leaded Contains TEL
Sunoco Supreme 112 112 Leaded TEL 0.18-0.27% (SDS CAS 78-00-2)
Sunoco Maximal 116 116 Leaded Contains TEL
117 MON race fuel ~120+ Leaded Heavily leaded

Above ~100 AKI, lead is the standard octane booster in petroleum-based race fuels. The word "leaded" does not always appear on the label. The Safety Data Sheet (SDS) is the definitive source.

Affected Records

Any existing record set on leaded fuel is recognized as a historical time but classified as disqualified for CG certification. The record stands as a benchmark — it does not carry CG certification.

Record Time Fuel Used CG Status
Catalina Island (45-ft class) 1:00:10 112 AKI (Sunoco Supreme 112) — Leaded Disqualified

This list will be updated as we review fuel data for other records across all categories. Any record holder who can demonstrate their run was completed on unleaded fuel (with fuel receipts, SDS documentation, or fuel sample analysis) can apply for CG certification of their existing time.

The Path Forward

A CG-certified record will be set on unleaded fuel. The technology exists. The performance is equal or better. The conversion is straightforward.

For the Mercury Racing QC4v platform, E85 is the obvious path. The fuel system conversion — larger injectors, bigger pump, bigger lines, ECU retune via MoTeC M150 — is a known quantity on this engine family. The charge cooling effect of ethanol typically produces more power than the leaded race fuel the engine was calibrated for. The fuel costs a fraction of race gas. It is available at gas stations.

For teams willing to go further, methanol offers even higher performance with the same unleaded status, at the cost of a more involved fuel system rebuild.

Either way, the first CG-certified Catalina record will be faster than the leaded one it replaces. Not in spite of running unleaded — because of it.

A CG-certified record will be set on unleaded fuel — or it will not be set at all.

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References

For a thorough overview of the lead-crime effect and how tetraethyl lead ended up in gasoline in the first place, see Veritasium's video on lead exposure.