Powered By Grease, Drivers Race to Greece

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ROBERT SMITH, host:

An unusual car race is under way in Europe right now. It started yesterday at the Ace Cafe in London. It's just the place to tank up if you're racing a vehicle fueled by cooking oil, used cooking oil. That's exactly what the drivers in the Grease to Greece Rally are doing. Andy Pag is the guy who dreamed up the rally, and he joins me now from the middle of race. You're actually a competitor. Hi, Andy.

Mr. ANDY PAG (Organizer & Competitor, Grease to Greece Rally): Hi there, Robert. Yes, well, it's a very gentlemanly competition.

SMITH: So where are you now?

Mr. PAG: Well, right now I'm in Dover. We're going to be taking a ferry across the English Channel to France. So we'll be leaving the white cliffs of Dover behind us.

SMITH: And how many people are racing?

Mr. PAG: We've got - in total we've got 10 teams, and each team's got about two or three people.

SMITH: This is not a race in the traditional sense. You're not trying to get there the fastest. What is the point?

Mr. PAG: Well, the point is to see if it's possible to drive right the way across Europe avoiding fossil fuel. Teams aren't allowed to use fossil fuel. So, they have to scavenge vegetable oil from chip shops. And some people have a converted engine in their car which can run on vegetable oil. And other teams have got standard diesel engine cars, and they're using biodiesel, which they're making on the road. We've got a FuelPod2 processor, and we're dragging that across Europe with us. And every evening, the teams that have collected vegetable oil can pour it in, and it cooks it away. And in the morning, it produces biodiesel.

SMITH: Now, let me get this straight. As part of this race, you will pull up to a fast-food restaurant, you'll pull into a pub, and you'll ask them what? Can I have your grease?

Mr. PAG: We'll ask them for their fat. Give us your grease.

SMITH: Do you know the name for fat or grease in French and German?

Mr. PAG: Well, do you know what? I don't. But what we've done is, we've got friends and family from around Europe to translate a little letter just explaining what we're doing, and why we're doing it, and begging for fat. And then we've laminated those because we thought they'd probably get pretty greasy by the end of the rally.

SMITH: I bet by the time you finish this race, you're going to be longing for a nice green salad, hold the salad dressing....

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. PAG: Absolutely! Every time I go near a greasy sausage or a bit of fried bacon, I do kind of go, no thanks.

SMITH: Andy Pag is the organizer and one of the participants in the Grease to Greece Road Rally. He spoke to us from Dover, England. And thanks for talking with us. Watch out for those trans fats.

Mr. PAG: You've very welcome. We'll do that.

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