Honda has set a new Guinness World Records for ‘Lowest fuel consumption – all 24 contiguous EU countries (all cars)’, recording an average 100.31 miles per gallon over 8,387 miles, in a 25 day drive across all 24 EU contiguous countries.
A Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-DTEC for the entire journey was driven by two members of Honda’s European Research & Development (R&D) team – Fergal McGrath and Julian Warren. The official Guinness World Records title is measured in litres per 100km and miles per gallon calculated over the entire journey.
The distance traveled is similar to the team driving to Australia from their home in the UK, stopping just nine times to refuel. The car achieved an average 932 miles on each tank of fuel, with a total fuel cost for the whole journey of just £459*.
*Calculated on average UK diesel price during June 2015, from www.fleetworld.co.uk.
The team set out on this road trip from Aalst, Belgium, on Monday June 1st, navigating the continent in a clockwise direction. They returned to their start point on Thursday June 25th, recording the fuel economy figures which exceed the Tourer’s quoted efficiency of 74.3mpg by more than 25%.
Under the rules the same two drivers must be in the car for the whole journey, giving Fergal and Julian, Honda R&D colleagues of some 18 years and based in the UK, the challenge of driving an average of approximately 380 miles, taking around 7.5 hours, each day.
The title attempt required the car to enter each of the 24 countries specified, collecting a range of evidence including a fuel/mileage logbook, GPS readings, video and photographs and independent witness signatures to prove that it has done so. Moreover, Under the rules of the record title attempt the car must be a standard model in every respect, with no modifications to create an advantage, to replicate ‘real world’ conditions.
