A car race with grease-pit stops

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KAI RYSSDAL: And this final note . . .

If you happened to be listening last Monday you might have heard me take a ride in a $250,000 Ferrari. Nine miles to the gallon, I think. But there was a very different kind of car on display in Washington today.

Four biodiesels are about to set off on the first annual Greaseball Challenge from from D.C. down to Costa Rica. They’re not exactly sporty. One’s a 1976 Mercedes with with some mold on the inside.

The 4,500-mile trip is funded in part by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Hard Rock Cafe.

The drivers will fuel up at that chain and at other restaurants along the way. Wherever they can get their hands on some old grease, I suppose.

Their first tankful, however, was generously donated by the World Bank’s cafeteria, which I’m told had samosas on the menu.