HOUSTON—There’s loving your car, and then there’s "loving" your car. James Yale falls in to the latter category.
A 50s sports-car aficionado, he’s invested nearly $20,000 into the engine of his vintage Cobra hot rod.
So to run his "baby," there’s only one type of gasoline he’ll accept: Super.
"Never, never" said Yale, when asked if he’s ever used regular unleaded. "If you run anything less than super in it, it gets pinging and it gets knocking and it can actually damage the motor."
So just imagine his reaction to what 11 News discovered: Documents uncovered by the 11 News Defenders show some gas stations in our area may be mixing regular unleaded into their premium gasoline.
And that rankles those who pay the extra 30 cents or more a gallon for the upscale product.
"This is just pure, out-and-out thievery," said Ray Moon, a certified mechanic and board member of the Better Business Bureau.
"Consistently having regular when your car requires super unleaded, it’s gonna cause some damage," said Moon.
And the reason?
"The super-unleaded typically burns cooler in the engine," he said, which better preserves sensitive parts of your engine. But Moon said regular unleaded gasoline burns hotter.
"It shortens the life of your engine," he said. "The intake valve itself gets hotter, and any piece of metal that keeps getting hotter and hotter, eventually will fail."
So where are these gas stations? And what is this State of Texas doing about all of this?
You’ll find that out and more as reporter Jeremy Rogalski investigates. You’ll also learn which prominent local politician may be caught up in all of this. But to find out, you’ll have to tune in Monday at 10 p.m. on 11 News. For now, here’s a preview of Jeremy’s investigation.
