NBB's Don Scott

Jay Leno & His EcoJet

2007 EcoJet Excursion

June 2007 - NBB’s Don Scott is on tour with Jay Leno’s EcoJet, educating masses of car enthusiasts about biodiesel.  The Tonight Show host owns the GM vehicle, which runs on biodiesel. 

Keep up with Don as he blogs the events of his trip! 

Thursday, May 31

Our first day on the road was a long one. The drive from central Missouri to Cleveland seemed especially long, because the night before was so short. I worked through most of the night trying to get everything ready for the trip. This was even after lots of hard work from NBB staff and the Missouri Soybean Association.

Rain-slicked roads in St. Louis sent a van spinning out of control towards us. Evasive maneuvers spared us from a collision. We didn’t spill a drop of the biodiesel donated by Jefferson Biofuels. This biodiesel, which was produced in the relatively new plant in Mexico, MO, is being delivered to Cleveland to power Jay Leno’s Ecojet and their GM Duramax support vehicle.

I’m embarrassed to admit, we made a wrong turn somewhere in Illinois. I blame overcast skies and lack of sleep. The detour had its benefits. It got us off the interstate and gave us an opportunity to see some beautiful farms and small towns. These very rural areas are enjoying a rebirth of economic activity as a result of biodiesel. Farmers are making more money from their crops and hard work, and that money gets spent at local ag supply businesses, retail stores, restaurants, etc. Biodiesel production facilities also create new jobs making fuel from locally produced raw materials.

The downtown Indianapolis skyline was obscured by smog, and illuminated signs on the interstate alerted us that today was an air pollution alert day. It made me glad we were burning biodiesel which reduces ozone forming hydrocarbons and particulate matter in our exhaust by 50% compared to other kinds of diesel.

I’m proud to be trucking down the highway with biodiesel logos all over our vehicle, but I look forward to the show in Cleveland tomorrow where, hopefully we’ll be talking to people one-on-one about biodiesel.

CEO Joe Jobe with Jay Leno at Jay’s Garage in Burbank, Calif.

•Visit Jay Leno’s Garage
•Watch a Yahoo! video about the car
•Listen to an interview with Jay Leno on biodiesel

Friday, June 1

Cleveland Rocks!

Today was set-up day for the Power Tour exhibitors. Hot Rod magazine and the event staff greeted us with a very warm welcome. They get that biodiesel is making strives to improve our energy security by making fuel in the US from raw materials grown right here in the US. I think they gave us extra special treatment because they believe in the cause.

We also met up with Gene Hemphill from New Holland. It is largely due to Gene that we got invited to come on the Power Tour. Gene recently established a relationship with Jay Leno, when Jay ordered a biodiesel-powered New Holland tractor for his garage. Gene is truly an ambassador for biodiesel. It’s no wonder his company won the 2007 Biodiesel Innovation Award.

The show doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, but muscle cars can already be seen all around town. The atmosphere is very exciting. It’s going to be fun!

Saturday, June 2

This morning we met the guys in charge of moving and showing Jay Leno’s Ecojet, and we got to see the Ecojet in person for the first time. Skip, Steve, and Steve were really great. It is going to be a pleasure traveling with this crew and making sure they get the finest quality biodiesel for their GM Duramax.

Everyone has been very friendly on this tour. The only disagreement we’ve witnessed was two guys debating whether the best thing about biodiesel is that it reduces dependence on foreign crude oil or because it offers an option to large integrated oil refineries who control traditional fuel production. I was reminded of the commercials where beer lovers argued whether the best thing about Miller Lite was that it tastes great or that it is less filling.

We enjoyed talking to people all day about biodiesel. A common interest among today’s participants was making your own biodiesel or using waste grease as fuel. That tells me it’s a good thing we are here to tell people that they don’t have to figure out how to make their own biodiesel or install any conversion kit to burn biodiesel in their vehicle. We’re getting the word out that there is a growing industry that makes biodiesel that already meets ASTM specifications and EPA requirements for motor vehicle fuel. All they have to do is find stations that sell it, and they can support an industry that will create 40,000 new US jobs and get cleaner tailpipe emissions at the same time. Having familiarization with burning used vegetable oil before I started working for the National Biodiesel Board equipped me to speak with authority on the many drawbacks of do-it-yourself fuels.

We enjoyed seeing a wide variety of cars today. I’m partial to the older cars, and I love the resurgent trend of “Rat Rods” that recall the home-made and rough-around-the-edges roots of the original hot rod. A tattered old Kaiser bore a message reading, “Environmentally friendly. Powered by pure luck.” Preferences for the vintage aside, there were a lot of really cool factory muscle cars and owner-modified cars that left us with dropping jaws all day long. My favorite hot rod today was 1935 Chevy pickup powered by a four-cylinder Cummins Diesel. See a picture of it and others from our journey in my photo album at www.imageevent.com/shaggy/powertour.

Tomorrow we will finally hit the road along side these hot rods as we depart Cleveland for Kalamazoo, Michigan. It should be a blast.

Sunday, June 3

We left Cleveland this morning for Kalamazoo, Michigan. We departed ahead of the Power Tour hot rods along with the GM Duramax hauling the Ecojet. We made straight away for our destination while the other tour participants took a more scenic route skirting Lake Erie.

Driving down the highway, it’s easy to forget we’re being powered by 100% biodiesel. There is no difference in the truck’s performance. It is an ideal substitute for petroleum. I normally buy B20 at a station in Jefferson City. We are using pure biodiesel on this trip, because we can haul a large quantity with us with no special permit or labeling. This is because biodiesel is nontoxic and biodegradable. It also has a very high flash point making it a safer fuel.

The rain began when we got to Kalamazoo and continued throughout the evening. That didn’t stop people from stopping by the biodiesel tent to ask where they could buy biodiesel. A lot of people seem to be convinced that biodiesel is a good fuel, they just need stations that sell it to be located conveniently to them.

I’m long overdue in introducing my copilot on this adventure. Ben Frentzel has helped me as co-driver, navigator, photographer, and biodiesel ambassador. He also helps me in determining our favorite hot rod of the day. Today’s Hot Rod of the Day was the Purple Pacer, a Pacer X to be specific. The Mirth Mobile has nothing on this plum colored hatchback. See pictures at www.imageevent.com/shaggy/powertour .

We put this trip together with such haste that our room reservations are not made ahead of time. Tonight’s accommodations are modest to put it politely. I’m not exaggerating when I say the swimming pool is green as pea soup. We have no time for swimming anyway. It’s time we rested for tomorrow’s drive through Chicago to Racine, Wisconsin.

Monday, June 4

Our Monday started with cold showers in our two-bit motel. It was good to get on the road again. We had learned to be more choosey in our lodging selection next time.

Our first traffic jam of the day began in rural Michigan just miles from entering Indiana. After finally reaching an exit, we decided to take our chances exploring side roads. Our luck was good. The detour lead us through Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. We stretched our legs by climbing one of the Dunes and enjoyed a scenic drive through lush trees.

We got on the toll freeway through Chicago and struggled with bumper-to-bumper traffic for most of the journey. We passed the Sears Tower before the rain began in earnest again. Rain and traffic tainted the exhibit in Racine. It’s a shame, because the grounds were right on the western shore of Lake Michigan, and it was otherwise beautiful.

We do not have a favorite Hot Rod of the day today. Our favorite moment of the day was our visit to the sand dunes. While the cars are beautiful, they can’t compare to the natural landscapes. That beauty was contrasted greatly with the pavement and congestion of the areas we traveled today.

For days, I’ve been bragging how the biodiesel industry has built 105 plants in recent years, and will complete over 70 more within the year with a total production capacity of over a billion gallons. People like hearing that, because they are aware that our demand for fuel continues to rise, while the aging petroleum refineries are maxed out on their production capacity. Biodiesel fans tell us that they think biodiesel should comprise 50% or more of the diesel used in the US. We explain to them that our industry’s goal is 5% of the on-road diesel market. As new or developed feedstocks and technologies are evaluated, and as the years progress, perhaps that percentage will grow. Five percent may seem small , but it is very significant. That correlates to billions of gallons. That volume is small only in comparison to our voracious consumption of fuel.

It struck me while we sat on a 40-mile parking lot in Chicago traffic, that every one of us needs to practice conservation in our daily lives. Biodiesel provides a healthy way to keep America rolling, but if we don’t carpool, make fewer and shorter trips, and drive more efficient vehicles, we’ll still be stuck. Even though biodiesel reduces harmful emissions by 50%, there are still thousands of cars spewing exhaust sitting on the freeway or lined up at tool booths. It’s an unhealthy situation, and it’s certainly no fun.

Tuesday, June 5

As Monday came to a close in Racine, we still did not have a place to spend the night. The Power Tour occupies every available room in the towns it visits. We eventually found lodging in a mom & pop motel in Burlington, WI. Burlington is several miles off the interstate among natural lakes and former dairy farms. The town and the motel suited us nicely.

The Ecojet crew had an early morning meeting in Chicago. Having fueled them up Monday night, Ben and I were free to drive to Springfield, IL on our own. It was nice having the independence to travel at our own speed. I think the independence of driving is one of the reasons Americans are so in love with their cars. That freedom of mobility is certainly something I value.

When traffic on I-39 ground to a halt due to construction, I wasted no time in turning off the Interstate. Where we went from there was secondary to avoiding another traffic jam. Our detour through Ottawa seemed to add quite a bit of time to our trip to Springfield, but as we noted Hot Rods we had seen earlier in the day arrive after us, we gauged that we had saved time by not waiting in traffic.

We had nice weather in Springfield, and it was a very nice event. Ben and I hated to leave, but we had been on the road a long time.

Tuesday, June 5th continued....

I forgot to name Tuesday’s Hot Rod of the Day, and it’s due time we told you a little more about Jay Leno’s Ecojet. The Ecojet is so incomparable to other cars, it deserves far more recognition that our mere Hot Rod of the Day designation. The Ecojet was built in Jay Leno’s Burbank garage with General Motors, Alcoa, and others supplying design and materials support. The sleek supercar shares some suspension components with Corvett and a turbine engine with a helicopter. The turbine’s 625 horsepower should be more than adequate to push the lightweight kelvlar and carbon fiber body along with traffic. It has yet to be tested, but the top speed is estimated to be over 200 miles per hour. The biggest bragging feature about this car is that it runs on biodiesel, proving you can have performance and style, and be environmentally friendly.

Tuesday was my last day on the Power Tour. I had to break off for a previous engagement with the Dodge Power Wagon Rally in Fairfield, IA. We are to be relieved by J.P. Dunn from the Missouri Soybean Association. J. P. and partner will continue to travel with the Ecojet gang to Evansville, In, Memphis, TN, and Little Rock, AR.

As we bid goodbye to the guys traveling with the Ecojet and the GM Performance Division. I have to say they are a hard-working bunch of professionals and they have been very gracious to us. It is because of them and the people at New Holland that Ben and I had the privilege of going on this tour. We thank them sincerely.

Wednesday, June 6

After a nice sleep at home, I loaded up for Fairfield, IA. Specifically, I loaded my 1942 Dodge Carryall on to a trailer in place of the fuel tanker we had been toting. My Carryall is one of 8,000 built for duty as a radio command car for World War II. After WWII, many of the same chassis components were used to build Dodge Power Wagons for tough civilian duty. This week marks the 20th annual Vintage Dodge Power Wagon Rally where truck enthusiasts gather to celebrate the ultimate in utilitarian vehicles.

As I headed north on Highway 63, the territory looks very familiar. That’s because I was here little more than a week ago. Before embarking on the Power Tour, I had been to Des Moines to visit with many of our National Biodiesel Board members. Iowa is the leading biodiesel-producing-state. We met with members here to update them on critical issues facing the industry. When I return from this tour, I will return to the important work of visiting with members across the country.

I rolled into the Jefferson County Fairgrounds to be greeted immediately by old friends. They noticed the biodiesel placards on my truck, but they were not surprised by them. They have been victim to my enthusiasm for biodiesel for months. I proudly handed out some biodiesel bumper stickers and license plate frames. Most of the vintage Dodges are gas powered, but most of them were towed here by contemporary diesel pickups-the same pickups most of these guys drive every day. The benefits of diesel engines are well know by this crowd, and a few have converted their old Power Wagons to Diesel engines. I’ll tell you more about them tomorrow.

Thursday, June 7

As promised, today is the day I introduce you to some vintage Power Wagons converted to run on diesel. The first is Bill Anthony’s Dodge M37 powered by a 7.3 liter Diesel V-8 from a Ford truck. The M37 is a military variant of a Power Wagon. You can think of it as the HummVee of the Korean War era. Bill hails from Ontario. He and his son and granddaughter rode with us today on a trail ride of sorts.

We rolled out of Fairfield to a local farm where it is tradition to drive around in the woods and the mud for fun. We didn’t get very far in my Carryall. When climbing out of a very steep ravine, the transmission began acting weird. After some lunging, jerking and screeching, and even a bit of smoking, I coaxed it to a level spot in the woods where we could survey the damage. Bill was quick to lend me a hand unbolting the floorboards from the Carryall, so we could access the top of the transmission. We were glad to have shade and nice weather, good friends, and glad that our old trucks were designed to be worked on in the field. In minutes, we were looking into the top of the transmission. Then we found that a nut had come off the output shaft. With everything back together, we drove it out of the woods.

Back at the Fairgrounds, we saw a most unique Power Wagon built by Bob Jones of Illinois. Bob’s truck is so cool, you have to love it even if it didn’t burn biodiesel, which it does. Illinois has a sales tax incentive that puts 11% biodiesel in many stations across the state. Bob's truck was built using the 6-wheel-drive chassis from a 1945 Dodge military truck. On that chassis, he mounted a civilian Power Wagon cab. With a fifth-wheel hitch behind the cab, it make s a beautiful, vintage mini-semi tractor. Powering it all, is a six-cylinder Cummins diesel from an early 90’s Dodge pickup. You can see pictures of it at www.imageevent.com/shaggy/powertour.

Friday, June 8

The primary reason I came to Fairfield this year was to get some good photographs of Bruce Buerk’s diesel-powered Dodge for what I hope will become a magazine article on a biodiesel-powered trail truck. Bruce’s truck is an early WWII pickup built in 1941-among the very first Dodge four-wheel-drives . Bruce fit his truck with a 4-cylinder Cummins diesel engine. We spent all day Friday, 12 hours in all, riding in Bruce’s truck running on B20. We headed, of course, to the Kerr farm outside of town, were we followed and blazed trails in the deep, dark jungles of Iowa. Iowa is known as farm country. The rich glacial soil is ripe for growing corn and soybeans that make today’s alternative fuels. Between those farm fields, in the valleys too steep to till, lie hidden wildernesses. In the wilds of the Kerr farm, vegetation grows thick and lush nourished by the rains of June. Those rains also make mud and some very deep puddles on the trail.

Bruce hails from south Florida where forest trails are often flooded with several feet of water. That’s why it makes sense for Bruce to have tires on his truck almost four feet tall. The stock Dodge engine would not have enough power to turn these big tires. The small, but mighty diesel has plenty of torque, not only to turn those gigantic tires, but to push them through deep water, over fallen logs, and up very steep hills. The simplicity and durability of the diesel also makes it well suited for this rugged use. Water is the enemy of a gasoline engine’s ignition system. With no ignition system to get wet, Bruce’s diesel can be depended on to run through the most adverse conditions.

I am an environmentalist. One of the reasons I joined the NBB staff is because biodiesel is good for the environment. If you see our trail ride photos at www.imageevent.com/shaggy/powertour you might question the environmental impact of churning all that mud. Dale Kerr is a generous host. He allows us to drive only on the parts of his farm that are not suitable to grow crops, and we do it just once a year. The rest of the time, these woods are reserved for wildlife. We saw turkey, and more than one spotted fawn. The frogs love the ruts we leave behind. We actually create wetland habitat where amphibians can breed. It wouldn’t do to trample over all our wilderness with four-by-fours, but in moderation it can be a great pastime. Lands used conscientiously in this way have much less environmental impact than the asphalt parking lot at your favorite big-box store or that new subdivision they just built on the edge of your town.

Saturday, June 9

The Power Wagon Rally concludes with a parade of vintage Dodges from the fairgrounds to the Fairfield town square. I drove in the parade with biodiesel banners on my truck. Bruce also displayed his fuel of choice with magnetic signs on his Power Wagon. At the truck show around the town square, I handed out more stickers and brochures and entertained a lot of good questions about biodiesel.

Having burned through my last tank full of B99 donated by Jefferson Biofuels, I topped off my tank at a Kum & Go in Ottumwa that sells B2. Being able to mix biodiesel with petroleum diesel in any percentage is a great advantage of biodiesel. Just two percent biodiesel provides optimum lubricity for longer engine life and contributes to all the economic and environmental benefits of biodiesel. That tank of B2 carried me home where I conclude my biodiesel power tour. Thanks for keeping up with my journeys.

Don