Taco Bell Targeting Motorists : Marketing: Miniature, test restaurant at filling station could be fast-food chain’s model for dozens more like it.

When the customers at a gasoline station here want a fill-up, clerks must find out whether they are talking about their cars or their stomachs.

The first Taco Bell Express in a filling station is making its debut in Orange County, and the miniature fast-food restaurant is a test by the popular Mexican chain that could become the model for dozens more.

The Taco Bell Express takes up a corner of the Mobil mini-mart and is run by three Taco Bell workers who have piles of tortillas ready to serve. Using the prepared ingredients that have been part of the secret of Irvine-based Taco Bell’s success, they put together a simplified menu of tacos, burritos and other specialties.

Business was slow at lunchtime Tuesday--about a dozen customers waited for food. Officials are quick to point out, however, that the taco stand has been open for only a couple of weeks and that the three-day grand opening doesn’t start until Friday.

“It goes in spurts,” a gas station worker said of the new food franchise. “It’s packed and it’s dead. It’s packed and it’s dead. It depends on how the (traffic) lights change.”

From a standpoint of traffic, the location would seem ideal. Motorists idling at the busy Rockfield Boulevard-El Toro Road intersection have plenty of time to ponder the Taco Bell signs affixed to the station.

“We’re happy with the results,” said Chris Peterson, Mobil’s manager of marketing ventures, adding that “there’s room to grow.”

The Taco Bell’s patronage is likely to increase, he said, after the station gets approval from the city to post larger signs. The mini-mart will be remodeled next year to take full advantage of the Taco Bell venture, he said. That, too, should boost business.

Peterson said the Mobil-Taco Bell experiment is one of three in Southern California. The other two have been in operation in Cathedral City, near Palm Springs, for about three months. The oil company is also trying such other food franchises as Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s in other parts of the nation.

“We feel by using national brands, we are able to use their brand drawing power,” Peterson said. “The idea is to create (customer) traffic in our service stations.”

Taco Bell, a subsidiary of PepsiCo Inc., pays a royalty to Mobil and provides its own staffing for the 24-hour food operation.

The tiny eatery is in keeping with the strategy of Taco Bell President John Martin to downsize fast-food outlets’ kitchens and add Taco Bell locations--from carts to vending machines--without losing quality.

Taco Bell Express already operates at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, at UC Irvine and the Barranca Food Court in Irvine. Until now, the gas station idea hasn’t been tried in the county.

Taco Bell spokeswoman Janis Smith said the company hopes to flood America with the outlets in virtually every place people gather--airports, theaters, campuses.

Taco Bell is “planning to put up thousands of low-cost, low-labor outlets by the turn of the century, all under the umbrella of Taco Bell Express,” she said. “It will make our products more available and more convenient than ever.”

Customers said food served at the Mobil station in El Toro tastes the same as that found at more conventional outlets.

“It looks like it’s a normal Taco Bell,” said Brendan Patton, a delivery truck driver from Dana Point.

For nurse Kris O’Brien of Irvine, the new Taco Bell was a perfect place to pick up a Burrito Supreme and an iced tea. “I average five out of seven days at Taco Bell,” she explained.

Jim Ferreyra, a warehouse worker from Lake Forest, said he sometimes stops by the new Taco Bell in the early morning. “I’ve come here a couple times. It’s very convenient,” he said as he pumped gas into his pickup truck. “I think they should do all the gas stations, whether it’s Carl’s Jr. or McDonald’s.”