However much the strange Firepower organisation might wish it, the SMH’s Gerard Ryle is not going away. His weekend feature should be enough to at least raise the odd concern among punters who’ve been talked into investing millions of dollars in the magic petrol pill outfit that fails to make a profit but still showers large amounts on sports sponsorship.

While Firepower hasn’t been able to produce credible independent scientific data to back its incredible petrol efficiency claims, it has fired up its PR effort, retaining former 60 Minutes producer Peter Wilkinson’s consultancy to churn out media releases about success in Russia and allege one aspect of an SMH report was inaccurate.

It doesn’t add up to much against Ryle’s work in tracking down the colourful business career of Firepower chief Tim Johnston.

Meanwhile an eagle-eyed subscriber spied what might have been an interesting field test of Firepower’s diesel fuel additive. Too bad it doesn’t seem to be on schedule.

Local Government Focus, an online local government publication, carried a yarn about a Canada Bay councillor’s enthusiasm to test the stuff on the Sydney inner-west council’s garbage trucks.

That was supposed to start last month, but a call to the council found it had been “postponed”, apparently awaiting the results of some other test being carried out by a Northern Territory government department.

Wilkinson Media was unable to find any sign of such a test. So it goes. We can only hope for speedy results from the promised testing of the magic pills by the WA Department of Consumer and Employment Protection.