Automotive

Honda sets Guinness World Record for fuel efficiency in Euro road-trip

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The Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC was driven by two members of Honda’s European research and development team, Fergal McGrath and Julian Warren
The Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC was driven by two members of Honda’s European research and development team, Fergal McGrath and Julian Warren
The Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC recorded an average 100.31 mpg (2.34 l/100 km) over the 8,387-mi (13,498-km) journey
The journey began on June 1 and lasted for 25 days, taking a clockwise route through the continent before bringing the drivers back to their starting point
McGrath and Warren took steps to ensure their driving was efficient, including accelerating and braking smoothly, anticipating road conditions ahead, carrying no unnecessary weight and ensuring the vehicle was well maintained
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Honda has claimed a new Guinness World Record, for the "Lowest fuel consumption – all 24 contiguous EU countries (all cars)." Although that's a bit of a mouthful, it simply means that the carmaker achieved the highest fuel efficiency ever recorded while traversing all 24 adjoining EU countries.

A Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC driven by two members of Honda’s European research and development team, Fergal McGrath and Julian Warren, recorded an average 100.31 mpg (2.82 l/100 km) over the 8,387-mi (13,498-km) journey. The journey began on June 1 and lasted for 25 days, taking a clockwise route through the continent before bringing the drivers back to their starting point.

McGrath and Warren's feat is reminiscent of Audi and the RAC's recent record-breaking journey through 14 countries in Europe on a single tank of fuel. Unlike that achievement, however, the drivers refueled nine times, averaging 932 mi (1,500 km) between each fresh tank.

Honda explains that the challenge was aimed at demonstrating the real-world fuel economy of the Tourer. Under the rules of the record attempt, the car had to be a standard model in every respect and fueling was carried out at regular filling stations.

The car's tire pressures and wheel alignment were optimized, however, and McGrath and Warren took steps to ensure their driving was efficient, including accelerating and braking smoothly, anticipating road conditions ahead, carrying no unnecessary weight and ensuring the vehicle was well maintained.

Source: Honda

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5 comments
Freyr Gunnar
> The car's tire pressures and wheel alignment were optimized, however, and McGrath and Warren took steps to ensure their driving was efficient, including accelerating and braking smoothly, anticipating road conditions ahead, carrying no unnecessary weight and ensuring the vehicle was well maintained.
IOW, regular car drivers have no way to hit that 3l/100km mark.
Which means that the only way to get to 1l/100km is to build much lighter cars with much less powerful engines.
Daishi
@Freyr I agree with you about need for a smaller car to hit those numbers in the real world but if people are going to own one car they usually pick something big enough to meet their needs for things like road trips instead of just moving their carcass to work and back.
Motorcycles are extremely unsafe to commute on in traffic and not many people opt for cars even as small as the Smart ForTwo and while some people might be drawn to their efficiency most women find them ugly.
So if you have kids they are probably too small and if you are single they are too nerdy and no matter your circumstance they probably aren't as safe as SUV's. Owning one likely means you already own other vehicles and are picking up a 2nd or 3rd. I think if there was huge demand for such vehicles we would see more small cars on the road.
They seem to have more appeal in car rental services like Zipcar.
maak
AND they never exceeded 20 mph and got out and pushed whenever they could! PLUS they planned the trip so it could be downhill all the way!
MQ
What was their average speed?
I'm assuming that it was considerably lower than a normally tolerant person would deem reasonable in our time-constrained world.
Such a test will only mean anything, if the travel was performed at (approaching) normal highway speeds (ie. 100km/hr as a minimum standard).
joe-ev
I have to smirk at the stupidity of records like this, when I have done 49270 km in the last 2 years and 10 months in real world conditions in my 2012 Mitsubishi ImiEV while using exactly ZERO litres of fossil fuel. I might add that I drive like a hooligan, I do not check my tire pressure regularly, I have hit a few very bad potholes about 2 years ago and my alignment is probably out since then. I go to the mountains skiing with my car, take my canoe to the lake and generally have a blast with my car each time I drive it. O yes, my car is a BEV of course. (battery electric vehicle). I have also saved over $13 000 in fuel and oil change cost compared to the fossil burner that I replaced with my EV. ...Just saying...