'The Oily Doilies'

Three students from the University of Wales, Newport, are gearing up to take place in the 10,000-mile Mongol Rally in a car fuelled by chip fat.

Documentary film students Christina Lauridsen, Dave Brittain and Laurence Cameron will drive a specially-adapted car a third of the way around the earth and make a movie of themselves participating in "the last great adventure".

For the students' journey, Mike Davies, the University's head groundsman, will fit a car with two fuel tanks - one running on biodiesel and the other on chip fat.

Lauridsen explains: ' This means that when we are low on fuel during the rally we will be able to stop off at any place that serves food and ask for their old cooking fat. We can put this straight into the specially adapted tank and drive off again!

'We think we'll complete the journey in about six weeks by taking it in turns to drive, and we'll be making a film of our travels which we hope to enter in festivals around the world.'

The trio, which has dubbed themselves 'The Oily Doilies', set off from London on the 19 th of July after raising £1,000 for Hopes and Homes for Children, a charity that puts and keeps children in family-based care.