Despite its long history as a fuel, ethanol’s popularity has waxed and waned. Since ethanol — also known as ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol and drinking alcohol — became a banned substance with the advent of Prohibition in 1920, Henry Ford’s preferred fuel fell out of favor. It didn’t make a comeback until the oil embargo of the ’70s, and then, after gasoline supplies returned to normal, was quickly forgotten until motor fuel prices began to climb in the late 1990s...

Not so long ago, scooters weren’t very common on the American landscape. For many people in this country, the only exposure they were likely to get to the tiny twowheelers was by seeing them in movies filmed in crowded European cities. (Remember Gregory Peck teaching Audrey Hepburn how to ride a Vespa in Roman Holiday?) Stateside, the buzzy little vehicles were a bit too slow and Spartan to gain much acceptance.