I'm always pleased to hear of folk looking for ways to reduce their dependency on oil, so it was with a glad heart that I digested the news that Prince Charles has been experimenting with some alternative fuels to power his collection - nay, fleet - of cars.
A combination of thrift (he cut his tax bill by £5000 last year, despite earning £1m more than before) and eco consciousness led him to convert his beloved Aston Martin (pictured) to run on a combination of cheese and wine instead of petrol, reducing his carbon footprint by a whopping 18 per cent (it was quite a whopper of a carbon footprint in the first place).
"They can't afford petrol?" roars Charles over the din of protesting lorry drivers. "Let them use wine!"
The converted DB5 runs on leftover wine, which seems something of a tautology to me, and if not so, a commodity that could surely be recycled in more pleasurable ways.
But it isn't just any leftover wine, but "wonderful English wine" says the Prince's private secretary Michael Peat. Good to hear he's keeping it local.
(Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Wonderful English wine? Recycle? I thought all English wine had already been drunk before anyway. It certainly tastes that way.
Posted by: steve straw | Wednesday, 02 July 2008 at 01:46 PM
It's a lot of effort to put in just to get a little bit of fuel. There must be better ways of producing fuel without using up valuable agricultural land - especially with a food crisis throughout the world.
I assume that if everyone converted to cars that run on wine, we would have to set substantially more land aside for vineyards?
Posted by: Linda | Wednesday, 02 July 2008 at 07:58 PM