Motoring on Vegetable Oil
A team from Warwickshire College powered down the
world-renowned Santa Pod Raceway as part of Alternative Energy
Racing day recently. The day saw vehicles drag-racing in the
categories of ‘alternative energy’ and ‘zero emissions’.
Warwickshire College’s Vauxhall Omega was an ‘alternative
energy’ contender, having been adapted to run on a mix of vegetable
oil, propane and bio-diesel by motor vehicle students.
The College bought the car 18 months ago on Ebay and since then,
have been adapting it to run on vegetable oil. This involved making
sure that the new type of fuel filtered properly, that it heated to
the right level and that the boost and fuel pressures were correct.
The vehicle also had extensive testing and tuning on the College’s
chassis dynamometer.
On the day, the car was driven by motor vehicle tutor Jim Nutt
who got faster and faster with fine tuning and help from his
students, knocking nearly a second off his quarter-mile distance
from last year. All Jim’s pupils were involved in the project at
some stage, from level 4 master technicians to 14-year-olds on the
College’s ‘Star 14’ scheme for year 10 students.
Jim explained the significance of this kind of event. “Clean
racing is becoming an important issue in the motor racing world.
Taking part in an event like this helps students to broaden their
minds, showing them they don’t automatically need to fill up on
fossil fuels. It’s also great for them to be able to take part in a
day like this as part of their course.”
Vehicles at the drag-race ranged from electric cars to
bio-ethanol motorbikes to electric pushbikes! Anyone could race
against anyone; the most important thing was to try to achieve the
best time for your car. Warwickshire College came third in the
‘alternative energy’ category, with the fastest car running on
vegetable oil.
For more information on courses call 0300 45 600 45.