Fuel economy. To most motorists it is one of, if not the most vital characteristic when it comes to choosing a new vehicle to be used as a main mean of transportation. More often that not though, the basis of this idea is set almost purely on minimising running costs alone rather than an attempt to advocate sustainability, irrespective of what they may otherwise claim.
Advanced diesel and hybrid cars have just started to trickle down to our market, such as BMW’s EfficientDynamics diesel range, Honda Civic Hybrid and the infamous Toyota Prius. Yet with their high prices far offsetting any savings that can be made through their superior fuel economy, most Malaysians will have to make do with regular petrol cars. Is that such a bad thing though?
Having been offered an entry in the Nissan Lightfoot Quest 2010 in a Nissan Sylply, I had the opportunity to try out just how economical a conventionally powered vehicle can be, if driven in an extreme fuel-saving manner. Mind you, the notion of matching, let alone beating the previous record of 26.6km/L set in a similar car was a daunting affair, especially when I constantly struggle to better 10km/L in my everyday drive.
The economy-run challenge, which was open to all Latio, Grand Livina and Sylphy owners, required all participants (driver and navigator for each entry) to ready their cars completely before the competition day as all vehicles were to be locked down under parc ferme conditions the night prior to flag off.
It was really interesting to see the level of commitment the entrants showed in the seemingly simple act of filling up their rides with fuel. Some were seen jacking up their cars to make sure every last bit of air in the fuel tanks were displaced by fuel, maximising the amount of petrol they could carry into the event. One chap even reversed his Grand Livina up a kerb to get the same effect. Talk about determination.
Cars of the media class were all pre-prepared by the event organisers thus giving us equal footing for the challenge. When the parc ferme was lifted however, my navigator and I still managed to remove our car’s headrests and carpets, including the boot floor to gain an advantage over the other media guys. I even procured a SmartTAG transmitter/receiver for the day, something the others didn’t think of.
We then pushed the car to the starting line (yes push, to save fuel you see). Starting up the engine for the first time, we were then flagged off to begin our journey through the pre-determined route from Holiday Inn, Glenmarie to the Petronas station right after the Ayer Keroh (Melaka) highway exit. Steady, light throttle input was the order of the day as we crawled off the start line.
In the spirit of competition, our wing mirrors were folded in as to further reduce wind resistance; so the short drive through traffic before joining the highway was a tricky one, with my partner having to look around the car and notify me of any nearby vehicles. Lets just say that complicated blind spot sensors such as those fitted to high-end luxury cars can’t hold a candle next to the plethora of warnings that I was made aware of by my active ‘radar system’.
In the next two and a half hours we suffered a hellish drive, with the windows fully shut and air con turned off. Sweating buckets, we cruised along the left lane of the highway at a steady 60-70km/h, overtaken by everything else on the road. The sinking feeling of being on the receiving end of rude hand gestures by much faster moving trucks and oil tankers were eye-opening, to say the least. Our initial strategy of drafting behind large vehicles never materialised as such as none of them were going at anywhere near the (low) speed we were maintaining.
Only once did we manage to be the one pulling off a pass on another vehicle, and to say that we did so with such verve that would overshadow Michael Schumacher’s outlawed move on Fernando Alonso at the end of the recent Monaco GP would be an understatement. Gaining uncontrolled vigour from the unexpected incident, perhaps my hot-headedness (quite literally) got the better of me as we sped off to the finish line.
Parked at the petrol station a full 30 minutes earlier than planned, we braved the thought of finishing last in our class as we waited for the rest of them to arrive. That was after we made a beeline to the cold drinks cabinet in the convenience store, of course. One by one, the cars are filled up right to the brim and the amount of fuel that went into the tank is then used to calculate our actual fuel economy.
As it turned out, we used a meagre 4.608 litres of fuel in the entire 147km long journey, which equated to a final economy figure of 31.8793km/L, far surpassing the previous record. Drunk with ecstasy of our performance (or lack thereof), we were then shot down from our high horse by the news of other journalists bettering us, leaving us way back in sixth place overall.
Utterly dejected, we then endured yet another horrific experience of finding out that all the media participants were absolutely trounced by the private entrants, four of which recorded otherworldly figures of more than 100km/L! Kenneth Chew, who managed to average 165.8014km/L (highest figure among 39 entrants) claimed to have taken no drastic measures apart from driving barefoot (to have more feel for the throttle pedal), over-inflating his Nissan Sylphy’s tyres to almost 50psi, and followed an oil tanker closely for the majority of the journey.
Hard to believe? Definitely, but do take the figures with a pinch of salt as they were all obtained under semi-controlled competition conditions that are impossible to replicate in real-life driving environment. In all honesty, no one would ever want to turn off the air con completely for long distance travels, would they?
On a side note, our return trip to Glenmarie was over in record-breaking time, as my partner took the wheel in anger/frustration, this time with the air con set at maximum just for the heck of it. After all, revenge is a dish best served cold.
Hafriz Shah