Speed and fuel efficiency: Driving like day and night

The growing concern for global warming and the need to care for the environment have caused a change in both product innovations and marketing. As consumers take into consideration fuel consumption and carbon footprint, the emergence of more fuel-efficient vehicles but lacking in performance continues. In this scenario, speed and fuel efficiency seem to be on the extreme opposites of the spectrum, like day and night, leaving car aficionados either hungry for speed or branded “enemy of the environment.”

Ford Philippines recently held a challenge if only to show that they have a vehicle with both the promise of speed and fuel efficiency of a small car. They invited a select group of media and customers to take the challenge with them. Their claim: the Ford Focus TDCI is the perfect marriage of speed and fuel efficiency.

Using the Clark International Speedway as backdrop, the goal is to drive the Ford Focus TDCI from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., a 12-hour endurance challenge, both counting your speed (most number of laps) and your fuel efficiency (amount of fuel consumed). It was a test of strategy, the usual rules of endurance races apply including tire and driver changes. Race car drivers were on hand to guide the teams and serve as safety marshalls. At exactly 8 a.m. the green flag was dropped by Ford’s AVP for Communications Anika Salceda-Wycoco.

Cars were run at normal conditions, the usual tricks for fuel economy challenges were foregone: aircon running and were sealed off from tampering, nothing was removed from the vehicle, tools, spare tires etc. Tire pressure is at the factory recommended specs and no shaking of the vehicles was done, it was just filled up to the brim.

Initially, organizers thought that the participants would run at the usual 60-80kph which is said to be the rpm range to be fuel efficient, but everybody ended up driving at 120-150kph, maneuvering the technical turns of the track like race car drivers.

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At 5:30 p.m., the track was lit and the auto on/off head lamps went off. This electrified the participants, never before was the track raced at night. It created excitement, as the track became a different one altogether. At 8 p.m. the checkered flag went down with the teams clocking more than 180 laps.

To compute for the challenge winner, the number of laps and fuel mileage was taken into consideration. The winner logged 184 laps and consumed 43.8 liters of fuel, driving at the speed of over 100 kph. As the challenge took participants to drive from day to night, it also was able to show how the Ford Focus TDCI lets you drive with both speed and fuel efficiency in the process disproving the perception that speed and fuel efficiency is as different as night and day.