10:47am Friday 4th August 2006
Faced with ever increasing car fuel costs, one high mileage motorist has found an answer - going gas.
As petrol prices break through the £1 per litre barrier, driving instructor Roger Brunt has taken delivery of a gas converted Vauxhall Corsa which not only dramatically reduces his fuel bills but has slashed levels of harmful emissions.
The instructor, who taught Formula one race driver Jenson Button to drive, has had the gas car on the road for a week and is pleased with the results.
He said: "Already I have noticed the difference and I am calculating that the fuel bills are almost cut by half. Petrol costs were about 11p per mile and the gas costs are down below six pence per mile."
Mr Brunt's new Corsa is the first gas converted car Platinum Vauxhall have sold and the conversion has been carried out by a local specialist Maffis Levisant.
The company, based at West Wilts Industrial Estate, specialises in converting cars and vans to run on Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) while retaining the full use of the existing petrol system thereby becoming dual fuel vehicles.
Martin McGillick of the Westbury-based company told the Wiltshire Times that converting a vehicle to run on gas are both economical and environmental.
He said: "A vehicle running on LPG emits 63 percent carbon monoxide 82 percent oxides of Nitrogen and 13 percent less carbon dioxide which makes the alternative fuel a cleaner solution as well as a cheaper one."
Mr Brunt, who calculates the money saved by converting to gas will soon pay for the £1,500 conversion costs, is pleased with his contribution in reducing emissions.
He said: "I am told that vehicles are responsible for a quarter of the UK's output of CO2 which is implicated in global warming so I am not only cutting costs but also going green; a win win solution."
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