More gas cars

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33448, 1 February 1974, Page 11

More gas cars

Two more propane-pow-ered cars have been added to the single test vehicle which has been run by BP New Zealand, Ltd, since December. The company’s first pro-pane-powered car has now covered about 7000 miles, and has attracted great interest. The cars have been modified with an Americanmade conversion kit which allows them to run on Board-room break Seven members of the 13-member board of Alfa Romeo have resigned after a disagreement on the siting of a new plant, and the board has been dissolved. The disagreement was over a proposal that the company—which is Statecontrolled—build a new 70,000-car-a-year plant in the depressed southern area of Italy. Datsun 260 Z A successor to the Datsun 240 Z sports coupe, the 260 Z, has been announced in Japan. The car has a 2565 c.c. engine in place of the former 2393 c.c. unit, and changes have been made to the transmission, suspension and interior styling. U.K. Gremlins American Motors has announced plans to export its compact Gremlin model to Britain. The export cars will have 4.2-litre sixcylinder engines.

either propane or petrol. Each car carries 401 b of liquefied gas in a cylinder in the boot, the equivalent of about seven gallons of petrol, at a comparative cost of about $1.50 a gallon.

The company says that it is carrying out the trials to evaluate the feasibility of using propane as a car fuel in New Zealand conditions, and to study its acceptability to the public as an alternative to petrol. The propane used is derived from natural gas from the Kapuni field in Taranaki. It has been estimated that the cost of converting a car is about $250.