The dielectric strength of air is about 80 thousand volts per inch. So it takes about half a million volts to generate a six inch arc. That's well within the capabilities of a large Van De Graff static electricity generator; you can buy a $100 Van De Graff that will put out 200 kV. So I find it plausible that a car in a dust storm could get charged up to 500 kV or more.
Now, I didn't see your earlier post, but here's the deal with ignition coils. Contrary to popular belief, an ignition coil is not a "step-up" transformer. It is an energy storage device, and it will generate whatever voltage is required to jump the spark gap, up to a point. That's why you can hold a spark plug lead an inch away from the plug and draw an arc, even though the normal coil output voltage is much less than the 80 kV required to jump one inch.
Now, the reason you can get a fouled plug to fire by holding the plug lead away from it is that this prevents the coil's current from being shorted out by the fouling until the coil voltage rises to a point where it will easily jump the plug gap. (I think it was John T who explained this to me, or maybe B&D, I don't remember.) You don't need a high-voltage coil to do this trick, as any coil can generate enough voltage to jump a half-inch or so.
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Today's Featured Article - Gatherin of the Orange - by Rick Nikolich. In July of 1998 I was talking to fellow Allis Chalmers collector Mike Schilling about the annual "Gathering of The Orange" AC show coming up in August of 1999. He got this wild idea that we should get a convoy of AC tractors and drive them from Charlotte, Michigan 105 miles to LaGrange, Indiana.
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