[/floatr]Former Japanese F-1 driver to race Dakar rally on 'tempura oil'
Wednesday July 26, 2006
TOKYO (AP):A Japanese research team plans to create environmental awareness by entering a race car in the Dakar rally that runs on cooking oil used to fry tempura.
The turbo-engine Land Cruiser 100, sponsored by Toyota, will be the first car completely powered by biodiesel to enter the prestigious event, said Hidefumi Onaka, a lecturer at the Osaka Sangyo University, which helped test the fuel and provided technical support....
....The Dakar rally starts in Lisbon, Portugal in January next year. The race tests man and machine over 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) of rough terrain and parched desert to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, the westernmost country on the African continent.
Onaka said the team will need about 10,000 liters (2,600 gallons) of tempura oil, which will be donated by students, the school cafeteria, as well as neighborhood restaurants. He said it will be reprocessed by biofuel maker Revo International Co. in Kyoto....more.....
