His time in European transport politics gave Charles McDonald an interest in green fuel. He now runs his car on vegetable oil. Hugh Oram reports.
You simply can't tell the difference between a car running on vegetable oil and one fuelled with diesel. I know, because I've just driven Charles McDonald's famous "green" car at Ballyroan, near Abbeyleix, Co Laois.
It was a perfectly smooth start for the 1985 Mercedes, which is in perfect mechanical and bodywork condition. At one point in its life, the car was in Moscow in the middle of a winter - it started perfectly each time in temperatures of -20° and lower.
The car rides just as smoothly on diesel - and without the "pinking" that comes with diesel. It gets from 0 to 60 mph in nine seconds, accelerates well and, if let loose on a German autobahn, it will do over 110 mph.
It's also extremely economical, averaging 73 mpg . . . and vegetable oil at €1.85 for three litres is rather cheaper than diesel. All in all, the car provides velvety motoring, yet all the time you're conscious of the power in play.
Charles McDonald is now retired from politics after 39 years as a Fine Gael councillor, TD, Senator and then a long spell in Europe. As president of the European commission for regional policy and transport from 1974 to 1979, he developed his interest in renewable fuels, already widely used in mainland Europe.
Eventually, he had his special car built. The body was a standard Mercedes saloon but the engine was a 1.4 litre three-cylinder affair half the size of a conventional engine of the same power. Yet it packs twice the power punch.
The engine was designed by Friedrich Elsbett of Elsbett-Konstruktion, a specialist engine maker, in Hilpolstein, between Nuremberg and Munich in Germany. Elsbett designed the engine to run on vegetable oil derived from rapeseed, but it works perfectly well on tallow.
If you do run out of vegetable oil, the car will go just as well on diesel. The vegetable oil engine was put into production by the German firm but numbers were limited; each engine was hand-built.
Transmission is manual, with no electronics in sight. Nor does it have power steering. "Power steering would use 3 per cent of the power," explains McDonald.
It's also a left-hand drive model but, apart from that and the name, Elsbett, painted on the appropriately green bodywork in several places, nobody could tell it from a standard Mercedes.
Charles McDonald points out that green fuel is an endlessly renewable resource which doesn't pollute. When the car is started, there's a little puff of smoke, and that's that.
With the engine at full throttle, emissions are reckoned to be 75 per cent less than diesel. As McDonald points out, even if this renewable fuel is spilled in a waterway, the fish lap it up.
He tried to get the idea of this environmentally-friendly engine off the ground in Ireland but it didn't work out. Farmers weren't very interested in growing rapeseed for fuel oil, even after the European Commission agreed to let setaside land.
Various governments haven't been interested and even today, there's no sign of any reduction being made in excise duty to encourage renewable fuel consumption. But if there was ever an emergency, the answer is there and it's perfectly viable. If petrol gets dearer rather than cheaper, the idea could get kick-started. Green fuel could be powered up smoothly and effortlessly, just like Charles McDonald's literally green car. McDonald himself has moved away from politics and is now chairman of the Sue Ryder Foundation in Ireland, but his interest in green car fuel is just as strong as ever.