by Martín Perna

A lean, mean, grease-burning machine.
Last fall I embarked on a 7,000 mile New York-Michoacan Mexico-New York road trip in a 1981 Mercedes Benz running on recycled vegetable oil. The vehicle was converted to be able to run on veggie oil using a Greasecar system installed by Mark Penta in Randolph, Vermont.

A few days after the installation, I set course south, making it to Tennessee on the veggie oil in my tank and in a few tubs in the back. In Nashville, I made my first free oil score, at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, 350 miles of free driving. It felt wonderful to speed across I-40 knowing that I was using a sustainable fuel, knowing that no American soldiers or Iraqi children were dying because of my petroleum habits.

Once into Mexico, until I was unable to find any significant quantities of vegetable oil. The larger restaurants that did have it sold it to recyclers. Smaller restaurants and food stands that deep fry food wouldn’t change the oil. They just kept adding fresh oil to the pot as the oil level dropped. So, much to the dismay of my conscience and budget, I filled up on diesel, at approximately $2.40 a gallon.

I searched high and low for cheap new veggie oil, and while I found some leads, big oil plants in Guadalajara and outside of Mexico City, these spots were out of my way. Determined to keep to the purpose of my trip, I spent 40 dollars filling up my tank on one occasion with 15 gallons of fresh virgin canola cooking oil, before realizing that I was defeating the purpose of my trip: to recycle already used veggie oil and save money.

Grease in the funnel = gas in the tank.
On the Pacific Coast, I was able to find veggie oil at small beachfront restaurants that would use oil only once to fry fish. Quantities available there were enough for a few tankfuls, but wouldn’t be sufficient to support any quantity of veggie oil vehicles.

After working on a superadobe building for a month in coastal Michoacan, I had to return to New York to get back to my other job: playing music with the group Antibalas.

I ended up selling the car in September 2004 to a man who boldly drove it straight out to California, and am currently planning my next veggie vehicle project: a Dodge diesel pickup.

I learned a few lessons along the way:

  • Do as much research as possible about the different veggie oil systems and products available by scouring the web and emailing veggie oil drivers. There are more out there than you think!
  • Get the best, newest car can afford. The veggie oil technology may work well, but everything else, from the brakes to transmission to suspension, needs to work as well, especially if you're going to do something a little crazy, like drive it to Mexico.
  • Waste Vegetable Oil is abundant in the United States and Canada, but not in Mexico. Unless you have a direct connection with an oil pressing plant or other large-scale food processing plant, it is difficult to find veggie oil, and therefore difficult to get around.
  • A lot of “conventional? mechanics will not want to touch your car if there’s a problem. Find out in advance where some veggie-oil friendly diesel mechanics are. or better yet, learn how to fix your own car!
A little ingenuity, a little courage, a little know-how, and a lot of grease are all it takes to make this possible. I know it's a silly pipe dream to think that the world's cars could someday run on veggie oil, but I like knowing there are alternatives, and I like knowing that my trip made a difference.



Martin Perna is the founder and baritone saxophonist for the afrobeat group Antibalas. You can read the entire weblog of his trip at ocotesoulsounds.com