To Gizycko and back

Today Ania (my girlfriend) was supposed to be in Giżycko at noon. I decided that I'll take her there. Note that I live in Warsaw, 272 km (170 miles) from Giżycko. We took with us one of her friends. They wanted to give me some money so I asked them to give me 2/3 of the price of train ticked for the same journey. That gave me 40 PLN ($16) total.

It was difficult to start the engine, even more than the last time. I had to start the starter 8 times before the engine finally decided to work. Perhaps that's because it was only 18°C (64°F) at 6 AM?

I tried to maintain a constant speed of 90 km/h (56 mph). I was told that driving to Giżycko via Łomża takes 4 hours with a normal car, I thought it'd take me more time. So I tried to drive fast, to give Ania some additional time after getting there.

It came out that the engine didn't like the rapeseed-diesel mixture I made yesterday. The acceleration was shitty, the maximum speed barely exceeded 90 km/h. But that was not the worst thing. The worst thing was the mileage. I used 11,1 l/100 km of that mixture (21 MPG). The price of that mixture is 3,6 PLN/l (4,76 $/gal) it was more expensive that driving on pure diesel! It's cheaper to use on 100 km 9 litres of fuel that costs 4 PLN/l than 11 litres of slightly cheaper mixture.

Going back home I tried to drive 70 km/h (43 mph). I had 7,6 l/100 km mileage (31 MPG). Much better result.

But I have one important question: why can't I use cheap vegetable oil as a fuel? I will try to make a professional vegetable oil thingie that will allow me to run on pure VO, not mixture.

It costed me total 200 PLN ($70). I wanted to visit her next weekend but now I think I won't.