5:27 pm, October 4, 2010
VOLKSWAGEN has broken the world record for the longest distance travelled by a production car on a single tank of fuel.
Piloted by a team from The Sunday Times, a Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion set a Guinness World Record after driving from Maidstone in Kent to the South of France and back again on one tank of fuel – a 1,527 mile round trip.
Gavin Conway, for The Sunday Times, and accompanied by a navigator and a video crew followed a route of town roads and French autoroutes, achieving an average speed of 45mph.
To witness the journey for Guinness World Records, the Passat was joined by two AA patrolmen.
Before setting off, the Passat was drained of fuel and refilled with 77.25 litres of standard diesel and eventually achieved 89.83 miles per gallon – exceeding the manufacturer’s 64.2 mpg figure.
The fuel cost for the journey was calculated at just 6.17p per mile travelled, a distance equivalent to driving from London to Malaga without needing to refuel, or from New York to Los Angeles with a single stop for diesel.
By James Batchelor
