Well cut with paraffin, the stuff was -
and on ration! Yet it could be further diluted (50/50) by more paraffin (9d a gallon), but off ration. at any ironmongers.
Old no-compression Standard longstroke would run on this mixture if it were warm. To cold start, take float chamber off carb, chuck away contents, fill with Ronsonol (any tobacconist), put back, crank, (usually) action !
By the time the mixture had worked through to the carb, with any luck, the thing would keep running (but the bobby on point duty would sniff suspiciously when you chugged past with a haze of blue smoke behind). But as everything else on the road was doing the same, it was only the aroma of paraffin stove that marked you out.
Happy days! (1946)
Danny.