Honda has announced that they are preparing to drive a 13,000km journey in search of a Guinness World Record for real-world fuel economy.
Two members of the Honda Europe Research and Development team, Fergal McGrath and Julian Warren, will take an unmodified Honda Civic Tourer with a 1.6 i-DTEC engine across all 24 contiguous EU countries. They will start the 13,614km journey in Aalst in Belgium and continue clockwise towards the Netherlands and Germany. The journey should take 25 days and begins on June 1.
The drivers will aim to attain the fuel economy record by driving an average of 592km per day. The title of the record is “Lowest fuel consumption – all 24 contiguous EU countries”. The drivers must collect evidence of their journey including a fuel/mileage log book, GPS readings, video, photographs, and signatures from independent witnesses. The progression of the journey can be followed here – and to follow it on Twitter the hash tag is #RealFuelChallenge.
Carlow native, Fergal McGrath said, “We are very much looking forward to the record attempt, and while we’re excited we’re both a little nervous about the scale of the task that awaits us. A huge amount of planning has gone into taking on this challenge and we look forward to what we hope will be a successful result when we return to Brussels on June 25th. But we’ve got more than 170 hours behind the wheel to contend with first!”
The countries to be travelled are as follows: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
