I knew that gas would not stop a car from starting but still I looked at snopes for more details. Ironically the professor they choose for their proof works at Berkeley.
**Sugar doesn’t dissolve in gasoline, as a researcher at Berkeley confirmed in 1994. Forensics professor John Thornton labeled sucrose with radioactive carbon atoms and mixed it with gasoline, then spun the concoction in a centrifuge. After the undissolved particles were removed, the liquid’s radiation level was measured to determine how much sucrose had become part of the gasoline.
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/autos/grace/sugar.asp#bkao0b1kcivWlTRp.99
Centrifuges separate, they don't blend. Methinks the prof isn't very smart. Or he thinks that we aren't.
We can assume he never had John Thornton as a professor [via Snopes]:
Sugar doesn't dissolve in gasoline, as a researcher at Berkeley confirmed in 1994. Forensics professor John Thornton labeled sucrose with radioactive carbon atoms and mixed it with gasoline, then spun the concoction in a centrifuge. After the undissolved particles were removed, the liquid's radiation level was measured to determine how much sucrose had become part of the gasoline. The answer was extremely little: the equivalent of less than a teaspoonful per 15-gallon tank of gas.