Tales from the rally
November 25, 2008
A small piece of plastic threatened to spoil our excellent opening day in the AA Energywise Rally.
To refresh your memory, this is the big four-day Auckland to Wellington and return economy run involving most new car manufacturers.
It kicked off from Ellerslie at rush hour yesterday morning and got to Palmerston North late in the afternoon, via Hamilton, Taumaranui and Wanganui.
I'm at the wheel of a 2.0-litre Ford Mondeo turbodiesel in fleet hack white.
We clocked 532kms in 'Rep One' yesterday. Fighting a path through Auckland morning rush hour was no fun, but once out on the open road the Mondeo was in great form.
I enjoyed the dynamics over a variety of roads (admittedly, at the expense of co-driver Brie Elder feeling rather queasy), felt fine after eight hours at the wheel and reckoned I'd got a pretty fair fuel burn for all my troubles.
Ford claims this car will return a best of 7.1 litres per 100km overall. We blitzed that, seeing 5.6L/100km on the trip computer. Pure luck, I assure you. Subsequently, the organisers put us down for a 5.8L/100km showing (personally, I reckon the car's electronics are sharper than their maths).
Refuelling at day-end, the car swallowed 31.3 litres. That is, once we got the fuel in. It took a hour and quite a lot of less-than-gentle persuasion. See, Euro Fords have a clever device, a plastic shutter in the filler opening. It's to stop anyone putting a petrol nozzle in there.
In this instance, try as we might, it wasn't allowing a diesel nozzle in either.
We're not why; I suspect some past user has given the filler a bashing that has knocked the setup out of alignment. A pair of techy types from the Palmy dealership, Courtesy Ford, were our salvation, prising the thing open with a very large screwdriver. Thanks guys, you saved our rally.
The event is proving to be as 'interesting' as I thought it would. Some driving is good, some less so - despite warnings that the 'real world' rules will be strictly enforced, some folks are driving like real nanas. And they've been a pain to pass.
Our technique is to play a straight bat - keeping on the posted speed limits whenever possible, and no dawdling up hills. There's no point doing otherwise, in my book. The whole idea is to drive as anyone else would on an ordinary day. To do anything less would defeat the purpose.
And, from our result, I reckon it's paying off. Some manual diesel cars in our class are achieving superior economy (as you'd expect) but, from what I can tell, their percentage increases - which matter more - are less impressive.
Obviously, we're not alone out there. Sixty manufacturer entries are tackling 1626kms of careful driving on motorways, unsealed roads, rural state highways and in peak hour city congestion. There are two other Fords, both petrols - a Focus driven by Graham Sharp and a Falcon XR6 in the hands of V8 racer John McIntyre.
Graham was a bit disappointed by achieving 6.0L/100km from his car. That's just 10 percent better than the official figure. Johnny Mac proved his mettle with a 7.5L/100km return - that's a 31 percent improvement.
Ours wasn't the only mishap. One crew managed to go 80km off course midway through the North Island. The greatest embarrassment occurred on the startline when the Hyundai Grandeur failed to start. Turned out to be a flat battery. Seems, when the cars were given a final check on Sunday night, someone hadn't closed a door properly. Naturally, it was shown on live breakfast TV. Ouch.
The rally is held every two years and is jointly organised by the AA, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), and Gull Petroleum.
Today will be a shorter time in the office. We're driving from Palmy to Wellington and return, the short way there (that's via Kapiti) and the longer route, through the Wairarapa, on the way back.
Tomorrow the run is another biggie, to Rotorua via Taranaki.
Oh, and the overall leader? As I predicted weeks ago, there's nothing out there to outdo a hybrid. Heading the score sheet yesterday was a petrol-electric Honda Civic, which returned a miserly 3.6L/100km.
What this means to you:
Always carry a screwdriver. A big one.
To refresh your memory, this is the big four-day Auckland to Wellington and return economy run involving most new car manufacturers.
It kicked off from Ellerslie at rush hour yesterday morning and got to Palmerston North late in the afternoon, via Hamilton, Taumaranui and Wanganui.
I'm at the wheel of a 2.0-litre Ford Mondeo turbodiesel in fleet hack white.
We clocked 532kms in 'Rep One' yesterday. Fighting a path through Auckland morning rush hour was no fun, but once out on the open road the Mondeo was in great form.
I enjoyed the dynamics over a variety of roads (admittedly, at the expense of co-driver Brie Elder feeling rather queasy), felt fine after eight hours at the wheel and reckoned I'd got a pretty fair fuel burn for all my troubles.
Ford claims this car will return a best of 7.1 litres per 100km overall. We blitzed that, seeing 5.6L/100km on the trip computer. Pure luck, I assure you. Subsequently, the organisers put us down for a 5.8L/100km showing (personally, I reckon the car's electronics are sharper than their maths).
Refuelling at day-end, the car swallowed 31.3 litres. That is, once we got the fuel in. It took a hour and quite a lot of less-than-gentle persuasion. See, Euro Fords have a clever device, a plastic shutter in the filler opening. It's to stop anyone putting a petrol nozzle in there.
In this instance, try as we might, it wasn't allowing a diesel nozzle in either.
We're not why; I suspect some past user has given the filler a bashing that has knocked the setup out of alignment. A pair of techy types from the Palmy dealership, Courtesy Ford, were our salvation, prising the thing open with a very large screwdriver. Thanks guys, you saved our rally.
The event is proving to be as 'interesting' as I thought it would. Some driving is good, some less so - despite warnings that the 'real world' rules will be strictly enforced, some folks are driving like real nanas. And they've been a pain to pass.
Our technique is to play a straight bat - keeping on the posted speed limits whenever possible, and no dawdling up hills. There's no point doing otherwise, in my book. The whole idea is to drive as anyone else would on an ordinary day. To do anything less would defeat the purpose.
And, from our result, I reckon it's paying off. Some manual diesel cars in our class are achieving superior economy (as you'd expect) but, from what I can tell, their percentage increases - which matter more - are less impressive.
Obviously, we're not alone out there. Sixty manufacturer entries are tackling 1626kms of careful driving on motorways, unsealed roads, rural state highways and in peak hour city congestion. There are two other Fords, both petrols - a Focus driven by Graham Sharp and a Falcon XR6 in the hands of V8 racer John McIntyre.
Graham was a bit disappointed by achieving 6.0L/100km from his car. That's just 10 percent better than the official figure. Johnny Mac proved his mettle with a 7.5L/100km return - that's a 31 percent improvement.
Ours wasn't the only mishap. One crew managed to go 80km off course midway through the North Island. The greatest embarrassment occurred on the startline when the Hyundai Grandeur failed to start. Turned out to be a flat battery. Seems, when the cars were given a final check on Sunday night, someone hadn't closed a door properly. Naturally, it was shown on live breakfast TV. Ouch.
The rally is held every two years and is jointly organised by the AA, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), and Gull Petroleum.
Today will be a shorter time in the office. We're driving from Palmy to Wellington and return, the short way there (that's via Kapiti) and the longer route, through the Wairarapa, on the way back.
Tomorrow the run is another biggie, to Rotorua via Taranaki.
Oh, and the overall leader? As I predicted weeks ago, there's nothing out there to outdo a hybrid. Heading the score sheet yesterday was a petrol-electric Honda Civic, which returned a miserly 3.6L/100km.
What this means to you:
Always carry a screwdriver. A big one.
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