I have run race gas, methanol, and E85 ethanol.
In many ways E85 is in between the other fuels:
- More torque than gas, not as much as methanol
- Runs cooler than gas, not as cool as methanol
- Uses more fuel than gas (~30%), but much less than methanol
- Changes ET less with weather than gas, but methanol may be slightly better. But all have been predictable for dial-in
- Less corrosive than methanol
- Less likely to milk the oil than methanol (but properly setup and operated is no problem with methanol)

The main reason I have been running E85 for 4 years is it saves money. Because you use so much methanol per run, the cost per run is higher than E85. And race gas is way, way more expensive than both, even though you burn less per run.
E85 was saving me $7 per day compared to methanol, and about $15 per day compared to race gas (110, forget 112 or 114 !) This year E85 is more expensive than previous years, but it still saves about $4/day compared to methanol.

A great fuel saver when running mechanical injection, is a pump gas primer/warm up system like Ron's "primer plus" http://killerrons.com