Pioneers in Natural Selection : Transit: A Coronado couple are the first private citizens in the county to convert their car to run on compressed natural gas.

Dan Bradley says he’s always wanted to thumb his nose at OPEC.

And now the Coronado Cays retiree is doing just that as the first San Diego County resident to convert his personal car to run on compressed natural gas.

“I’m the No. 1 person in San Diego County, the first common citizen to have a natural gas vehicle,” Bradley said proudly.

But cutting his reliance on foreign oil wasn’t the only reason for the move.

“Your car runs longer,” the 69-year-old Bradley said. “And there’s less smog.”

Bradley converted his 1990 Buick Skylark to run on both unleaded gasoline and natural gas. The conversion cost $3,600, but Bradley and his wife, Mary Frances, paid just $1,800 thanks to a San Diego Gas & Electric Co. program that provides rebates to make natural gas conversions more attractive.

About 200 cars and trucks will be able to burn natural gas by year’s end, but all of those vehicles are used by commercial and industrial owners, according to SDG&E.; The Bradleys were the first San Diego County residents to convert their personal vehicle to burn both gasoline and natural gas, gas company officials said. The couple contacted SDG&E; after hearing the conversion was available.

Mary Frances Bradley said that, at first, the car didn’t have much power for freeway driving.

“My big test was the Coronado Bridge,” she said. “I had a hard time getting over it without shifting to low gear.”

But the car hums right along now since an adjustment was made by Hawthorne Power Systems, a local company that handles the conversions for SDG&E.;

“It pumps right along on the freeway,” she said.

For Dan Bradley, the only negative is that the natural gas tank fills the Buick’s trunk.

The conversion also involved installing special fuel pipes and a device that allows the couple to change fuels with a flip of a dashboard switch.

The Bradleys fuel their car at a handful of commercial natural gas stations in San Diego County. But they hope to install a compressor that will allow them to fuel their car from the natural gas line leading to their home.

Though the Bradleys intend to burn natural gas when tooling about town, they’ll stick to unleaded when on the road because of the dearth of natural gas fueling stations.

During a trip to Yosemite later this year, for example, “we’ve got the names of stations in San Diego County, Bakersfield, Fresno and Los Angeles . . . but we might have problems getting fuel elsewhere,” Bradley said.

Bradley said the system is surprisingly simple to operate: A single switch on the dashboard controls which type of fuel is injected into the engine. The fuel tank gauge also keeps tabs on both tanks, Bradley said.

Very few Southern Californians have modified their personal vehicles to burn both unleaded gasoline and natural gas, according to Southern California Gas Co. spokeswoman Denise King.

“There’s not been a lot of activity from private citizens,” King said. “We’ve focused largely on fleet operators.”

Southern California Gas is now working with several individuals who want to install compressors at their homes. Once the compressors are in place, the individuals plan to convert their gasoline-burning cars to burn natural gas or buy vehicles that are equipped at the factory to burn natural gas, King said.

NEW INCENTIVES: The National Energy Policy Act boosts the use of natural gas in vehicles. D1