O.K., here’s the South Park Shell on 551 3rd Street from the other day. Regular is $3.62 and Premium is, wait a second, only suckers get premium so forget about that. Anyway, nothing unusual.
But the problem is that Bryant Shell at 598 4th Street charges $3.98, ten percent more, despite the fact that these stations are just one block apart.
What’s up with that?
Here’s what you’ll see tooling around San Francisco’s Mission District these days - an aging Mercedes Benz 300 SD sedan that’s been converted by Oakland’s Veg Rev to run on vegetable oil in a process called “vehicle fuel reassignment.”
So instead of inky diesel soot covering the back of this OM617 W126, we see vegetable oil. See the conversion process courtesy of this nifty video. (But just ignore a laughable MTV-style intro from the abysmal Current TV network.) The car shown can’t accelerate quickly, but in many ways is superior to (and costs about $115,000 less than) the quick, all-electric Tesla Roadster.
Of course the best way to spread the word about veggie power is to fashion a bumper sticker to make Toyota Prius owners feel bad:
Click to enlarge.
“YOUR NEW HYBRID USES GAS - HA!”
From Teh Mission with love…
Click here to see the latest version of the proposed Chevy Volt “series hybrid” gas-electric car from General Motors. Yes, that’s a fake grill on the nose of the car - apparently, all Chevies gots to have a grille whether they need it or not.
But that’s the way this “boring, boring, boring” vehicle will look once it gets to production.
But look below to see what the Chevy Volt looked like less than a year ago when it visited San Francisco.
Click to expand:
Nobody expected these 22-inch wheels (complete with ”not for road use” Michelin Green-X tires”) to make it into production, but the folks at Chevy could have tried a little harder to drag the show car dream into existence.
Comes now Toyota with the third-generation Prius that might get a plug-in option at the end of next year. GM better hurry if it wants to get the Volt on the road before then.
But at least Hollywood’s Michael Bay is doing all he can to help. Having honed his skillz directing Scarlett Johansen (as Jordan Two Delta) in The Island, he’s now working on fitting the Chevy Volt into Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
But sadly, this little Chevy will just drive around and not transform into a robot or have any lines with Optimus Prime (known as Convoy in Japan).
Oh well…
Oh, it’s on. And it will remain on until midnight tonight. That’s correct, Two Free Tacos Day is upon us. You see, Jack feels your (gas) pain, so alls you need is a receipt from a gas station and free food is yours. Forget about El Tonayense just for a day and get over to your nearest J in the B.
Now it might seem odd to San Franciscans, who are used to getting discounts on purchases for simply riding a bike, but people across the America are being rewarded for using gasoline.
Note author’s bicycle through window - you don’t need a gas receipt from today, any old receipt appears to work
And unlike Plumpjack, where “uneven food” unsettles the finicky, Jack served up two tacos that were almost identical to that which was served up prior this year.
Best of all? No bogus Healthy San Francisco surcharge.
Get thee to a Jackery. See you there!
This was the scene last night at the Atlantic Richfield on Fell and Divisadero last night. “No Gas.” Why’s that? Who knows. Maybe it’s a temporary shutdown at this particular station for an innocuous reason. Maybe.
Or, maybe it’s a signal to go out and buy all that you can lay your hands on. That was such a good strategy a few months back when we had that “rice shortage“. Wasn’t it?
These days, it’s not just Peak Oil or Peak Rice, it’s Peak Everything. Oh noes! Panic, panic panic!
Oh well. The upside to all this is that the Fell Street bike lane, formerly crowded with cars sitting in line for ARCO gas (check the photo from MapJack at “1160 Fell St, San Francisco, CA 94117“), is now free for bikes to use 24/7. So the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition can count another victory. Plus the owner of the Spirit station across the street must be happy.
Hurray!
The Ice Age is coming, the sun zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear…
It seems Volkswagen is making progress with fuel cell technology. VW dropped by a few places in the bay area this past week to show off their latest effort in the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. VW just happens to be introducing their “Tiguan” (tiger plus iguana, in German) crossover vehicle soon, so why not put this experimental propulsion technology in the latest platform?
CNET was there at the W Hotel and they took some photos. Wired also took some shots, plus they have a nice rundown on the whole affair.
This Tiguan uses hydrogen fuel cell technology, which differs from what BMW has done with hydrogen so far. BMW’s approach is to just modify a typical internal combustion engine so that it will accept either gasoline or hydrogen. Comedian Jay Leno explains. But this method comes with its downsides.
VW was also pleased to show off the new fifty-state-legal Jetta TDI diesel. You can’t hardly tell it’s a diesel. Look to see lots of these TDI cars on the streets of San Francisco soon. It seems everyone who owns a TDI just raves about this high-MPG technology.
Invizabul driver in the SOMA. This new 50-state-legal Jetta has plenty of power and very high MPG - perhaps you’d prefer this VW over the slightly larger and more expensive Toyota Prius hybrid?
And let’s not forget about the Jetta TDI Cup Race, which shows the young’uns that diesel engines have come a long way since the bad old days. It’s the first clean diesel racing series evah.
A speedy TDI at the yummy XYZ restaurant in San Francisco.
VW says that their hydrogen fuel cell technology is seven to ten years away from being available. The sooner the better.
