I didn’t mean for it to become a game. It’s just that I couldn’t be bothered to stop for a bun and to refuel the Ford Fiesta ST.
Instead, I carried on driving, and then carried on a bit longer, and a bit longer, and now I’m only 89 miles from Calais, in a stupid game of my own making that I didn’t want to play in the first place, wondering if I can drive from the Frankfurt motor show to the Channel tunnel without refuelling.
The trip computer says I’ll run out of fuel in 109 miles, so at least I’m winning.
Except I’m not, am I? I’m driving behind a lorry – close enough to get some slipstream, but not so close that its driver is annoyed, and I’m doing maths.
Sure, the trip computer says I have 20 miles in hand, but I’m a long way from winning. I’d filled the Fiesta – into which we usually squeeze around 45 litres of unleaded when the trip computer gets tetchy – on the way into Frankfurt, so I’m asking for a range of more than 450 miles. And that means, if I don’t fill up until I roll into a filling station in Folkestone, I have to better 45mpg. Under more normal circumstances, the Fiesta gives 38mpg.
That’s why I’m behind a truck, see, wondering when, or if, I can make a break for it. I’d like the journey to be over as quickly as possible, and a stop in France could make me miss a train, costing more than half an hour; the stop in Folkestone will only cost me a stop.
Really, then, I should drive faster. But as soon as I leave the tranquillity of a Kögel trailer’s vacuum, I won’t get 45mpg, the fuel gauge will head south, and if it goes down too quickly – which it will if I break out now – I’ll have to stop for fuel. That’ll take 10 minutes, during which time the lorry will hunt me down like a cycle peloton chasing a lone breakaway rider, so I might as well stay here, though it feels very slow and perhaps if I eased out and… argh, my head hurts.
This is the slowest, most compelling and stupidest race in the world.
And even though, in the end, it turns out I can happily make it to Folkestone, I’m still not even sure if I won it. I’ve long believed that the quickest way to drive somewhere is to stop as infrequently as possible. Today, I’m not so sure. Stop for the bun.
Join the debate
Add your comment
silly game
Fuel is cheaper in Belgium than the UK, so you should quit your game and fill up before you get to Folkestone.
This is what EV driving must
This is what EV driving must be like.
Except that an EV wouldn't do 109 miles in the first place.
And you can't recharge it on the hard shoulder.
Slipstreaming (otherwise known as Tailgating)
Firstly, Driving too close to the vehicle in front is the most frequent cause of accidents.
Secondly, many of us have done the same to check the Best possible fuel consumption of our vehicles.
On a Honda CRV cdti that has a 2.2ltr engine, the slipstreaming mpg behind a suitable HGV varies between 4.5l / 100km (62.8mpg) and 4.7l / 100km (60.1 mpg) - @ speed between 96 - 105 kph
The above numbers were obtained over 100kms of Motorway.
The difference between Diesel and (efficient) Petrol engines is that at a high cruising speed, the Petrol engines score.
My 528SE BMW on a trip from Calais to Eastern Hungary averages 8.3l / 100 km (34 mpg) at an average speed across the whole trip of 140 kph. (Not exceeding 180 kph).
As soon as I exceed 180 kph to speeds in excess of 220 kph, fuel consumption explodes to 16l-22l / 100kms.
The Diesel Honda 2.2cdti on the other hand becomes less economic than the 2.8l BMW from speeds of 130kph upwards.
I am very surprised Matt Prior is only able to squeeze 45mpg out of the Ford Fiesta whilst slipstreaming.
I would be interested to learn of the average speed of the truck that Matt was slipstreaming.