I don’t drive often, but when I do, I drive the lean, mean, soybean machine. That’s my lovely little Bug, which runs on vegetable oil. Not biodiesel, which has some scary additives but can be used in any diesel engine without conversion. My baby runs on straight vegetable oil (SVO). Like the kind you cook with. I have been known, when I clean out my pantry, to dump out-of-date cooking oil straight into my veggie tank and drive around town on it.
I got my TDI Bug converted a few years ago using the greasecar system. You see, the diesel engine was actually designed to run on peanut oil, so converting it back isn’t that difficult with most engines. The old Mercedes are the easiest - you just have to change out the glow plugs and fuel injectors. The VWs are a little more complicated, but well worth it. Just think - guilt-free driving! Not to mention a great conversation starter. And last time I checked, no one was fighting any wars over vegetable oil.
So here’s me tooling around town today, fueling up with soybean oil at Costco, and thinking I have the coolest Bug in town. And then I see, two spots down from me, the IKEA summer sale Bug. Not only a classic bug, in yellow, just like the one we had as a kid - but it has the craziest hat in town! I think my Bug is jealous. Now it wants a hat, too.
