Hi Robin,
well, myself, Phill and RichH sat down last summer and did some sums.
Doing Eurofest cost us around £160 (each) in petrol for a trip of around 800 miles. We worked out, that using LPG, we would have paid about £80 for the same mileage. We also all said, that if our cars were running on LPG, we'd use them a heck of alot more. I'd love to use Flopsy more, but at 20mpg (on a good day), I'd be bankrupt in a month! :lol: (the Rapier only does 17-22mpg, and is a very simple single point LPG system to install and will also be converted this year).
Based on doing LPG as a DIY conversion, we worked out that it would only need a couple of thousand miles to recoup the installation costs.
A 'donut tank' with a range of about 100 miles will fit in the spare wheel well, and Phill came up with a really neat idea for 'hiding' the LPG filler - I suggested asking Chris Nicholson to fit me a second "gas" flap :wink: :lol: - but no, we're not going that route.
The conversion is still in its development stages at the moment, however Phill and Rich Have been to see a number of suppliers round the country, and getting the bits to do it is not a problem. Phill has a spare inlet manifold and has had some LPG injectors made, and that is now waiting to go to an engineering shop to have them installed. Once that is done, work can start on the rest of the installation. Sorbet is going to be the guinea-pig out of the three cars, as she is the one doing the most mileage at the moment (about 9,000 miles p/ann). Once the system is fitted, all that is required is to take the car to an LPG installation company, for them to test it and adjust as necessary, then issue a certificate which is required for insurance purposes (you must tell your insurance company if LPG has been fitted).
As a side note, Practical Classics magazine are interested in doing features on alternative fuels, and have approached me about the conversion on the Rapier and want to do a feature on it when I start work on the conversion. Because Rapey has such a big boot, I can fit a much larger tank, probably about 100 litres, in it, which will give the car a much better range - and with LPG around 41p a litre, it will effectively mean I'll be getting the equivalent of 40mpg out of her.
In fact, you can even buy the huge cylinders of LPG, complete with the nozzles to fill the car up yourself from home, and it will cost you about 20p per litre.
To me, initial outlay aside, its a no brainer.