LONDON: Do you want to slash your fuel bill? Well, why not run your car on vegetable oil as some people already do especially if they run older models of diesel, which are easier to convert, though modern cars, such as the Ford Focus TDCi and VW Golf TDI, can also be adapted.

Mike Lawton runs Regenatec, a UK-based company that converts diesel vehicles to veg-power. “Typically a fully fitted veg oil conversion will cost a bit over GBP1,000, including tax,” Lawton says. “That’s for an older diesel car. For a modern version you’ll need to pay around GBP100 extra.”

And if you’re handy at DIY, Regenatec is ready to sell you a ‘smartveg’ kit for GBP600, though you’ll need to spend a solid weekend doing the conversion, he warns.

But is a kit necessary? “It can be very difficult to start a car from cold using veg oil, especially in winter,” he warns. “It’s too thick and gloopy; it needs to warm up. Our kit uses diesel to power the car for the first few minutes, then it automatically switches over to veg oil. You need to flush the engine through with diesel at the end of the day after using the car, but only for about 60-90 seconds.”

Lawton reckons that for someone with a modern diesel covering 15,000 miles a year, the GBP1,100 or so spent on a fitted conversion will pay for itself in less than 18 months. From then on you’ve running on dirt-cheap, though planet-friendly, biofuel.

Potentially, you can kiss goodbye to fuel station forecourts for ever, powering your car for free, if you’re intrepid enough to use second-hand vegetable oil and are on good terms with your local pub or fish and chip shop.

Chip fat, however, does need to be filtered, otherwise you could find you’ve got rancid pieces of old kabab or fried egg clogging up the fuel pump — fatal for your car and pocket.

One motorist who saved himself the expense of a conversion is Kenny Tucker, who recently bought a 1989 Mercedes-Benz 190 diesel 2.5 for just GBP200 off eBay. Currently using a mix of soya oil and rapeseed oil from his local supermarket to power the car, Tucker is planning a 3,000-mile drive across Europe later this year to publicise vegetable oil’s economy and ‘greenness’ — provided he can persuade restaurants en route to offload their old cooking fat.

“The car is very strong. I’m averaging (14km to the litre). We’ve actually turned it into a company car; whenever we do a big trip we take the veggie Merc. It’s comfy, rugged, green — and cheap,” he says.

Medicinal research chemist James Jenkins, however, took something of a risk when converting his 1998 Peugeot 206 1.9 diesel in October 2004.

It was a leap of faith initially as the fuel pump in his Peugeot — a Lucas unit — is not considered as robust as the Bosch units many older German cars such as VWs and Mercedes use.

Nevertheless, Jenkins went ahead with the conversion and since then he has covered 40,000 trouble-free miles, doing about 300 miles a week.

And the best bit? The fuel cost has been almost zero, since his Pug is powered by vegetable oil from his local pub. “Getting rid of their old fat is often a problem for pubs. So as long as I’m regular and prompt, I have it free. Pubs often have to pay for it to be removed anyway.”

He drains the oil into a 55-gallon drum at home, equipped with two filters.

He could buy an electric pump but funnelling it in is straightforward enough. “It’s not like filling up at the petrol station,” Jenkins says, “but I’m confident of my methodology. I did a lot of research before going for it.” —Dawn/The Observer News Service