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sop

(18,525 posts)
Wed Mar 25, 2026, 04:27 PM 9 hrs ago

'Cuban Man Converts Polski Fiat To Run On Charcoal To Get Around U.S. Oil Blockade"

"The lights went out across Cuba only a few months after the U.S. imposed an oil blockade, cutting the island nation off from precious fuel supplies. But Cubans have decades of experience keeping their cars on the road through unconventional means, and one man has managed to keep his car going, despite the lack of gasoline, by converting it to run on charcoal instead, reports Reuters."

"Juan Carlos Pino did the gasoline-to-charcoal conversion on his 1980 Polski Fiat, which was basically a Fiat 126 built behind the Iron Curtain under license in Poland. He removed the engine lid (conveniently, in the back) and added his own homemade creation that enables him to run it off charcoal rather than gasoline. It looks kind of like Doc Brown's DeLorean equipped with a Mr. Fusion, if Doc was from Cuba, drove a Polski Fiat, and the car didn't need 1.21 gigawatts of power."

"Rather than obtaining parts from the future, Pino built the entire contraption himself. An old propane tank is now the chamber where the charcoal burns, sealed shut with the lid off a power transformer. A filter between this and the engine is made of a stainless steel milk jug with old clothes inside as the filter element. It's simple, yet effective. One of Pino's early test runs covered 53 miles while hitting a top speed of 43 mph, which certainly beats the alternative of going nowhere fast without gas."

Continued at link:

https://www.jalopnik.com/2130301/cuban-man-converts-car-to-run-on-charcoal-after-oil-blockade/

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'Cuban Man Converts Polski Fiat To Run On Charcoal To Get Around U.S. Oil Blockade" (Original Post) sop 9 hrs ago OP
Don't tell Trump or we'll be driving clean coal Yugos. dem4decades 8 hrs ago #1
They've had to do without for so long, I would guess there's a lot of inventions to keep going. Deuxcents 8 hrs ago #2

Deuxcents

(26,795 posts)
2. They've had to do without for so long, I would guess there's a lot of inventions to keep going.
Wed Mar 25, 2026, 05:08 PM
8 hrs ago
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