This is true, Marci, though some very obvious ideas have been overlooked for long periods of time. An example is with Saab. They recently released a version of their coupe designed to run on ethanol. Ethanol has an Octane rating of 110. This is too high for most engines to run on efficiently (don't ask me why, I'd say it screws up the compression ratio and the timings). Saab figured out that a higher engine pressure and modified timings would allow the engine to run very efficiently. Roughly a 10 percent increase in hp AND fuel economy. Just by adding a turbo and changing some timings. Considering that ethanol goes for $1.89 on average vs. $2.05 for 93 octane, I'd expect other manufacturers to follow suit.
Obvious concept, took the auto world a long time to realize it.
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