Back To The Future? Here’s a car that can run on old socks and logs

An enterprising Siberian man has adapted his car to run on logs, animal waste and even old socks instead of petrol. Kirill Busenius, from Omsk, took only a week to create his special generator which he has attached to the back of the vehicle.

Inspired by car owners in the Second World War – who used such means to power their trucks – his generator turns solid and liquid fuel materials into gas to run the engine.

And driving at a maximum speed of 90km per hour, a 15kg bag of logs is enough to go for about 120km making it more efficient than normal petrol.

Busenius said: 'The fact is that it is an ecological car. It does not smell, and when the logs and coal are burning, carbon dioxide and water vapour are coming out of the tail pipe.

'I bought six tonnes of logs for 700 roubles (£8.20). If we say that three kilos of logs is equal to one litre of petrol, then I got two tonnes of petrol for 700 roubles. In other words, logs fuel is three times more profitable that petrol.'

The generator is the 30-year-old’s second, having made another one for a car he sold on the Internet less than a day after putting it online.

Placed in the boot of the Lada, it ran on tree cones, logs and animal waste and allowed him to drive for 10 hours at a time. It was snapped up on a website for 120,000 roubles (£1,400).

Earlier this week Busenius' 'second generation' model was unveiled, towed behind his shiny new Niva car and attached to the engine by a series of hoses and pipes.

He only spent 5,000 roubles (£58) making his contraption with his army friend Dmitry Vlasov because he was able to use parts he already had. A generator built from brand new parts would cost six times as much.

Busenius, who only has nine years of school education behind him, is the talk of the neighbourhood with police unsure how to register the car, and people wondering how it can possibly be so fuel efficient.

Some have dubbed it Siberia’s 'Back To The Future' car because it bears a crude resemblance to the time-travelling vehicle powered by recycled garbage materials in the Hollywood movie.

He said: 'There is a standard engine here but I attached the gas generator to it, which turns any solid fuel material into gas.

'You can throw in your old socks and the car will go but I prefer to use logs. And opposed to an ordinary car, my one will start whatever freezing the weather is.'

He added: 'It is very convenient in the forest because when the fuel runs out, you just pick up cones, throw them in and go on driving. It’s so economical.'