This cycle worked for a while, but the drive, about 1,400 miles in all, began to kill Friedman. Fortunately, word spread and he began selling cars in San Francisco too. Last year he replaced the Airstream with an Echo Park house where he could work on cars in the front lot, and he began testing the L.A. market. People laughed at him before, but now he was getting some interest. When neighbors started calling the city about his front-yard garage, Friedman took the plunge, rounding up investors and renting a warehouse. “At that point I was against getting back into the system, but it was getting too big to do it on the side,” he said. “When I saw the warehouse, I had a flashback of the life I had left behind — I’m going to take it home with me, it’s going to be in my head.”
He needed help to handle Lovecraft’s expansion. Due to Friedman’s tenuous legal standing from his previous business ventures, Callie Wilson, who had just closed her alternative-clothing store, signed on as legal owner and business manager, and Mike Ackerman, a former upholsterer, joined as lead mechanic. Blooming business, especially after the opening of the Sunset Junction showroom, has further accelerated growth. And according to Friedman, any profit goes right back into the company. He says he’s hoping to expand to a second warehouse nearby.
Turning your car into a vegan
Courtesy Tess Vigeland/Marketplace
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With a slightly uncomfortable smile, Friedman stood before the TreeHuggerTV’s camera and testified to the marvels of his conversion system. Despite operating in shadowy legal territory, he’s never been shy about promoting his business in the media. ABC’s World News Tonight, KCAL 9 and Al Gore’s Current TV network have all featured Friedman, as have Bloomberg News, American Public Media and a host of other outlets.
Others involved with vegetable-oil conversions, like Christopher Goodwin, owner and operator of Frybrid Alternative Fuel Systems in Seattle, and the alternative-fuel consultant Linscott, are not entirely pleased that Friedman has become the public face of the industry.
“Regulators are turning a blind eye to engine conversions right now,” Goodwin said. “Hopefully this will continue, but some pinhead setting up a shop at a busy intersection in L.A. could mess it up. This runs the risk of setting back the whole movement.”
Goodwin and Linscott have also claimed that the Lovecraft system is flawed. By failing to heat the vegetable oil to a high enough temperature (160 degrees) to thin it out, the fuel injectors overwork. Goodwin compared it to “pushing butter through a Windex bottle.” Additionally, the two maintain, running the vegetable oil in a cold engine will cause carbon buildup and lubrication problems. The famously durable Mercedes engine can handle the abuse in the short run, but the wear and tear will eventually destroy the engine. While both Goodwin and Linscott have concerns about the Elsbett one-tank system — the industry’s most respected — they pointed out that it involves many more modifications than Friedman’s system.
“Some robust diesels like Mercedes may run on his gonzo conversions,” said Linscott, “but the engines will not have one-third the lifespan they would on [petrol] diesel, or with a better-engineered conversion.”
Friedman asserted that his system has no problems running at 120 degrees, but, in response to concerns, he has added a heater to get the oil to 160. He dismissed criticism of his system as sniping from jealous competitors dedicated to the two-tank conversion system.
“There’s such a thing as evolution of the system. The diehards who don’t want it to evolve will knock down anyone who does a lot of business or publicity,” he said. “We’re doing nice, quick, low-cost conversions that work. That’s what it’s like to be at the top of the mountain, where everybody underneath us is trying to knock us down.”
In Friedman’s view, the hundreds of Lovecraft cars still on the road provide decisive proof that his system works. He said his car has logged about 60,000 miles, and claimed that a driver in San Francisco has piled on more than 100,000 veggie-fueled miles. Of the customers Friedman provided for interview, none has had any complaints about the conversions. In fact, one Angeleno was so thrilled with her two Lovecraft cars that she has bought a third for her teenage daughter. But none of the customers interviewed had yet logged more than 12,000 miles.
Friedman enters into a relationship with his customers involving multiple phone calls and visits to the shop, and he admitted that he occasionally refuses to sell cars to people he thinks will be “a headache.” Starting at $1,500 for a non-Mercedes, Lovecraft will modify any diesel engine, but his business focuses almost exclusively on Reagan-era Mercedes-Benzes. These cars often have more than 200,000 miles on them already, so Friedman offers a comprehensive guarantee on his cars whereby he’ll buy them back or pay for repairs.
When the vegetable oil seeped out of the funnel and dripped onto her feet, squishing between her toes, Wong wasn’t angry, just frustrated at the mess. Filling up, like rolling up the windows and tuning radio stations, can be a hassle with her Lovecraft-converted, 25-year-old car. She used to call it the “Barbie Army Tank,” but now it’s “Old Baby/Harold.” And, while she’s learned that vegetable oil is not the perfect fuel, she still feels good about it: “At least we don’t have to go to war to get it.”
Liam Scheff contributed to this article from San Francisco.
