How would it feel to drive by a gas station and smile because you don’t need to stop and fill up? You probably don’t know that feeling, but Nick Russell of South Kingstown, Rhode Island has experienced it many times.
Nick powers his 1985 Mercedes-Benz exclusively with vegetable oil. And he isn’t afraid to broadcast it, either. In fact, he has big, bold letters in his back window attesting to the fact that he uses vegetable oil instead of gasoline. Just below the letters that spell out “Powered by vegetable oil,” there is a sticker that reads, “Kill Your Television.”
But Nick isn’t happy only about the money he’s saving at nearly four dollars a gallon. He’s also happy that he’s not polluting the air and he’s not contributing to the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
The 19-year-old Russell doesn’t like to brag about his car, but it is something to be proud of. In November 2005, he purchased an $800 kit that he used to convert his Benz into a vehicle dependent on vegetable oil. This was a huge chunk of change for the sophomore at the University of Rhode Island. But by spring of 2006, the kit had already paid for itself.
The kit, which is available at Greasecar.com, only works when converting diesel-powered vehicles. It involves adding a second fuel tank to the car. When you drive it, the diesel fuel allows the car to warm up and then you simply flip a switch and the fuel tank switches to the vegetable oil tank.
Russell uses recycled soybean oil from a local fish restaurant every other month. He gets about 28 miles for every gallon of vegetable oil and about 29 miles per gallon when using diesel.
