Fuel Economy Record - 1,626 on a single tank!

Second Turbo said:

[*]Do Passats have Botch CP4 pumps?
[/LIST]

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It sounds like they refueled before the car ran out. In any event, this is what pump my Passat has:

Thanks for the level-headed post, RomanL!

no problem

I can't understand the posts in this thread that are huffing something to the effect that "Well, this is all invalid, because I don't drive this way." Well....of course you don't. And I don't either, and neither does pretty much anyone else. The whole point of this was to set a mileage record, not drive to work, the store, or on vacation. It was to prove what the car was capable of doing. As such, it is perfectly valid, and quite an accomplishment.

Lighten up, Francis.

and accomplishes what? drive slower than the limit....annoy drivers behind for sure....draft probably not too safely....if I drive my Camaro at 30mph in 6th gear I might get 40MPG out of her!!! wow....better mileage than I get in my TDI.....

tdi90hp said:

and accomplishes what? ....

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1. fuel economy potential of diesels.
2. how much impact driving technique can have on fuel consumption.

Its good press for diesels.

tdi90hp said:

and accomplishes what? drive slower than the limit....annoy drivers behind for sure....draft probably not too safely....if I drive my Camaro at 30mph in 6th gear I might get 40MPG out of her!!! wow....better mileage than I get in my TDI.....

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if you're the slowest driver on the road how can you draft someone?
and once again we're beating a dead horse,,,, they uses small rural roads which are open to passing most of the time *(not on turns or hills) as far as my experiences goes with driving on them.
take your Camaro do 40 MPG and you too will have set a record for that particular vehicle

Am I missing something, or did they not report their fill up volume in VA? If they didn't run out of fuel then their actual mpg's would be even greater, right?

RomanL said:

if you're the slowest driver on the road how can you draft someone?
and once again we're beating a dead horse,,,, they uses small rural roads which are open to passing most of the time *(not on turns or hills) as far as my experiences goes with driving on them.
take your Camaro do 40 MPG and you too will have set a record for that particular vehicle

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And a lot of stops. Stops kill mileage.

tditom said:

Am I missing something, or did they not report their fill up volume in VA? If they didn't run out of fuel then their actual mpg's would be even greater, right?

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yes you missed it
they drained the tank completely
filled it to the brim,
sealed the door ,, and of they went till they ran out dry

In this case, it's all about incentives. Normal people are willing to do all kinds of crazy things for gain - certain reality shows come to mind. Just offer some appealing reward coupled with fame and prestige and I'm willing to bet that more than a few sceptical drivers here would take the bait. It's amazing what can be accomplished if all energies are focused on a single objective. The Guinness book exists because of people like this. Better a diesel than a hybrid.

RomanL said:

so many non believers,
i am impressed, its not the way i would drive , i'd gladly pay extra for all the MPG's i loose, but that doesnt mean i'm not happy or impressed to see those numbers.
i keep telling myself that when i have a perfect road trip lined up i will try to catch my 800m/tank UNICORN,
technically they drove the speed limits or very close to it (5 under? we see that all the time) im sure on smaller rural roads people can just go around, so i dont see an issue of being stuck being them *(its not like they camped in the left lane at 60MPH on a 80 MPH freeway)

and am i really the first person to say: what about HPFP running out of fuel?

EDIT : i just saw someone beat me to HPFP

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Am I missing something, or did they not report their fill up volume in VA? If they didn't run out of fuel then their actual mpg's would be even greater, right?

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RomanL said:

yes you missed it they drained the tank completely filled it to the brim, sealed the door ,, and of they went till they ran out dry

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I did not read they ran dry. Actually, Tom is correct. All calculations are based on amount of D2 pumped BEFORE the trip. Assuming the car did not run dry, the actual fuel economy is unknown. In all fairness the story is about miles traveled, not MPG. And if you want to get technical, IF they ran dry, then >19.322 was consumed. But at 1,626 miles the small difference in fuel consumption is negligible.

If they are willing to lie about their speed of travel its not that big of jump to lie about the vehicle towing them down rural roads.

Sorry i don't buy a 100+% fuel economy jump from hyper-milling. I also cant believe the 2L option here would beat the old record held by the 1.6L TDI in Europe.

You can also note the record is still held by the 1.6L TDI because Guinness wont accept new records from the Taylor's after they where banned for undisclosed reasons (cough, cough cheating) at the Kia 48-contiguous State Fuel Economy WR event.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1/longest-fuel-range-(standard)/

BadMonKey - I'm having trouble finding info about why the Taylors are supposedly banned from Guinness or other articles about foul play on their part. Do you have a link?

RomanL said:

yes you missed it
they drained the tank completely
filled it to the brim,
sealed the door ,, and of they went till they ran out dry

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There is no mention of them running out of fuel at the end of the run, and the car is shown at a Shell station when the VA cop is verifying the odo. Unless they were towed or coasted there, they did not appear to run out of fuel. I'm curious what that final fill was.

roadhard1960 said:

Do the math for fun. 1626 miles divided by 3 days divided by 14 hours is less than 40 mph. My map program shows about 1,400 miles by interstate and 1629 miles if you avoid interstates. So when they claim they did 60 mph on the highway that could be true as they were barely on the interstate. Probably annoying as heck doing 40 on rural roads with 55 mph posted. If they did the short route and drove 60 mph average they would have taken 23.5 hours. Heck 1600 miles at 60 mph is 26.6 hours. You might conclude it took them 3 days at 14 hours or 52 hours. They certainly were not driving 60 mph very often.

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BadMonKey said:

If they are willing to lie about their speed of travel its not that big of jump to lie about the vehicle towing them down rural roads.

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Regarding average speed, the couple did 14 hour stints in the car with sleep in between each stint. It's important to note that they arrived at their destination at 2pm on the third day (as shown on their check in log).

14+14+8 = 36 (8 hours on the third day is an assumption - it could have been fewer)
1600/36 = 44.44 mph average speed

Plausible.

This new record is, what, all of 4 days old? Guinness acceptance and website changes will take longer than that.

BadMonKey said:

If they are willing to lie about their speed of travel its not that big of jump to lie about the vehicle towing them down rural roads.

Sorry i don't buy a 100+% fuel economy jump from hyper-milling. I also cant believe the 2L option here would beat the old record held by the 1.6L TDI in Europe.

You can also note the record is still held by the 1.6L TDI because Guinness wont accept new records from the Taylor's after they where banned for undisclosed reasons (cough, cough cheating) at the Kia 48-contiguous State Fuel Economy WR event.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1/longest-fuel-range-(standard)/

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BadMonKey said:

.

You can also note the record is still held by the 1.6L TDI because Guinness wont accept new records from the Taylor's after they where banned for undisclosed reasons (cough, cough cheating) at the Kia 48-contiguous State Fuel Economy WR event.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1/longest-fuel-range-(standard)/

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I'd like to see some kind of back up as well.

Type their name into that search and their names come up with few records. Sure it's not there just cause it's too new?

maybe we will see them with a new record for a 2012 passat.

VeeDubTDI said:

BadMonKey - I'm having trouble finding info about why the Taylors are supposedly banned from Guinness or other articles about foul play on their part. Do you have a link?

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You wont find anything official posted and if you contact Guiness directly they have a cookie cutter response. I heard it from someone connected to Kia.

I was skeptical when i first heard the story but after their last couple of events i noticed they didn't have any of the officials present therefor they aren't really records IMO.

This guy mentions it in the end and the only thing i could find online.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43799

Rockwater said:

This new record is, what, all of 4 days old? Guinness acceptance and website changes will take longer than that.

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Do you think they would use hotel managers and local law enforcement if a Guiness judge was present which is required to be official?

Show me the results when the TDI CLUB sponsors a road trip, with a TDI with almost 500,000 miles on it. Training starts tonight, I'll be the one on I-64W and I-95N doing 55MPH I'll be the one with my flashers going.

BadMonKey said:

Do you think they would use hotel managers and local law enforcement if a Guiness judge was present which is required to be official?

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From the Guinness site, "Please note that the presence of an official GWR adjudicator is not compulsory in order to attempt a GWR record."

Also, "Once you have received the guidelines you can attempt the record and collect all the evidence as indicated in the guidelines and in the Records Breakers Pack. You can send the evidence to our office in London, where we will be able to verify it within 6 weeks and send you a certificate to commemorate the achievement, if the verification is satisfactory."

So, it takes time for a record to be verified and a judge is not required to ensure that proper guidelines are followed, although some sort of verifiable proof is necessary. Personally, 84 mpg seems a little suspect but I haven't tried driving in 6th gear on flat terrain for any length of time. The secret seems to be conserving momentum in the high 30s to low 40s mph range which puts rpms at 900 to 1100 for 6th gear, choosing a route and times favorable for legally driving low speeds, optimizing weather conditions, using a bed pan, and whatever other techniques that extreme hypermilers might use to eke out maximum mpgs or range. Like I said, no one undertakes a trip like this unless adequate incentives are put into place.

I don't see any mention of foul play in the clean mpg forum link.

I call BS on this story. I have no reason to think so, I just do.

Was the tank cover plate inside the trunk also sealed? There's more than one way to fill the tank.

VeeDubTDI said:

I don't see any mention of foul play in the clean mpg forum link.

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here you go dude

"Guinness told us during the Kia 48-contiguous State Fuel Economy WR, the couple got into a bit of trouble last year for something Guinness officials would not disclose. Unfortunately for all, Guinness no longer accepts WR drives from them so whatever it was it is not good"

firedwg1 said:

here you go dude

"Guinness told us during the Kia 48-contiguous State Fuel Economy WR, the couple got into a bit of trouble last year for something Guinness officials would not disclose. Unfortunately for all, Guinness no longer accepts WR drives from them so whatever it was it is not good"

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The source for that quote is from Wayne Gerdes (a rival hypermiler) on the cleanmpg forum- please provide something directly from Guiness if you have it.

MyAvocation said:

I did not read they ran dry. Actually, Tom is correct. All calculations are based on amount of D2 pumped BEFORE the trip.

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tditom said:

There is no mention of them running out of fuel at the end of the run, and the car is shown at a Shell station when the VA cop is verifying the odo. Unless they were towed or coasted there, they did not appear to run out of fuel. I'm curious what that final fill was.

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sorry guys this record was covered by all major car related sites, and i just thought that this was the link that had all the details...
but it was leftlanenews.com that had it along with few pics.
here's a quote from the article

""Three days and nine states later, the Passat ran out of fuel in Sterling, Virginia, precisely 1,626.1 miles away from its starting point.""
http://www.leftlanenews.com/diesel-burning-vw-passat-sets-fuel-mileage-record.html

OK- thanks for finding the source.