Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 7/15/16. Joshua Kappellusch speaks about he outfitted his 1972 Chevrolet Blazer to run on five different fuels while at the Chattanooga National Cemetery on Friday, July 15, 2016. Kappellusch plans to take a cross country trip honoring Chattanooga’s Fallen Five using gasoline, propane, natural gas, E85 and solar power to complete the trip. To help with the trip
To donate for the trip to San Francisco and back, visit www.machfuels.com.The public is invited to a send-off today in Chattanooga.› What: Send off for Kapellusch and Hopson› Where: Tennessee Riverwalk near Navy Operational Support Center, 4051 Amnicola Highway› When: 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. today
Joshua Kapellusch’s 1972 Chevrolet Blazer, with its raw aluminum body, propane and natural gas tanks and rear-mounted solar panel, clearly isn’t normal.
It turns heads. At every stop in downtown Chattanooga on Friday, the convertible drew comments and conversations from passers-by on the sidewalk.
Kapellusch, CEO and founder of Chattanooga-based alternative fuel company Mach Fuels, is happy to talk about the Blazer. In fact, he’s setting out today on a five-day road trip to San Francisco to encourage conversation about it, and the fact it runs on five different types of energy.
He is also making the trip in memory and in honor of the four Marines and one sailor killed on July 16, 2015, when a gunman opened fire on a pair of military sites here. With no roof on the Blazer, Kapellusch and his friend Daniel Hopson (a former U.S. Marine) will leave around noon today from the outpost on Amnicola Highway and drive five days on five fuels in memory of Chattanooga’s Fallen Five.