A marathon effort
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CM took part in the MPG Marathon at Tankersley Manor to find out the best way to cut fuel consumption By Kevin Swallow and George Barrow
THE PRICE OF fuel is without doubt a sore point, yet despite some respite in recent months from its everincreasing cost, the reality is that the £6 gallon of diesel (or more) is here to stay. While manufacturers strive to improve efficiency, achieving the best possible mpg from your vehicle by driving economically has never been more important. Combined mpg figures for the EU duty cycle that are published for each new vehicle can have a major effect on sales (particularly in the car sector), but many drivers will never achieve those figures in their day-to-day driving. Participants in the annual MPG Marathon, which took place at Tankersley Manor, near Sheffield, look to better those claimed fuel consumption figures, with manufacturers entering their vehicles to prove that the fuel usage and emissions of their vehicles can be improved. Over 9 and 10 October an array of cars and
LCVs of varying sizes were pitted against each other to see who could achieve the best overall mpg, and who could record the greatest mpg improvement over the average claimed by the manufacturer.
Renault has recently updated its Kangoo city van (see p11), lowering the new Phase II model's fuel consumption and notching up an impressive claimed 65.7mpg. Achieving that landmark in our Kangoo ML19 Energy dCi 90 Sport would be tough, but the aim is to improve on it, as well as beat that of our closest matched competitor — a Citroen Berlingo 1.6Hdi 75. With roughly 370 miles to travel over two days, with points as divided as Cheshire and Lincolnshire, avoiding traffic, hills and cities would be among the biggest challenges.
Recording a large percentage increase over our already frugal Kangoo's baseline looked unlikely from the start, nevertheless CM and 22 other vehicles departed Tankersley Manor near Sheffield with high hopes. Our ambition was to beat the combined fuel economy figure, the Berlingo and, with any luck, two much smaller car-derived vans (Ford Fiesta Sport Van and Vauxhall Corsavan) that were also in our class. A navigational scatter
Previously, the Fleet World MPG Marathon traversed a pre-set route, but this year it became a navigational scatter. That meant starting from Tankersley Manor Hotel, just off J36 of the M1 north of Sheffield, then finding our own way to the refreshment stops at four postcodes over two days of driving. Although equipped with a sat-nay, we used it sparingly, and chose instead to be guided by an ageing copy of Philip's Navigator Britain map book — as recommended by the Institute of Advanced Motorists — for the Kangoo's first journey to Washingborough Hall (LN4 1BE), to the
east of Lincoln. Having studied the power and torque graphs, and spent a few days tying to eke out the fuel in London in preparation for the event, we chose to avoid motorways and dual carriageways wherever possible and stick to a 40mph target speed. It was a controversial tactic that saw the Kangoo take to the undulating B-roads and A-roads towards
Retford before hopping on to the Al (briefly and unavoidably) then the A57. Passing over the small toll bridge at
Dunham on Trent, the indicated mpg readout displayed a heady 89mpg, before we rejoined another B-road around the back of Lincoln to the hall where coffee and carrot cake awaited. Burnby Hall (Y042 20F) was to be the next destination, leaving us with little alternative but to take the ruler-straight Al5 north, over the M180 and then once
again on to the back roads to South Ferriby before rejoining the A15 for the Humber Bridge. A punishing headwind had decimated our economy, which now read closer to 70mpg than 90mpg. Demoralised, we took the A63 and A1034 for coffee and Victoria sponge cake at Pecklingten.
The last leg of day one saw the ece-pioneers return to Tankersley Manor Hotel (S75 3DQ), many opting for the more obvious route; joining the M1 just north of Leeds. Encouraged by our early success, CMinstead opted to rely on some vague local knowledge and criss-crossed East Riding of Yorkshire, taking in Allertherpe, Melbourne, and Highfield, before joining the A19 at Barlby, and then on to Adwick-le-Street outside Doncaster.
We arrived at the evening's stop-over point via a small back road, and attempting to join a more direct road home had to give way to many of our competitors who had opted for that route. The road is long and winding Day two saw the group head west to Mottram Hall (5K10 4QT). We opted to continue our direct tactic and take on Woodhead Pass in the belief that what goes up must go down. Unfortunately, our route involved more ups than downs, with our descents into Glossop and Hayfield hampered by slow-moving civilians unaware of our green mission. CM arrived on the edge of Stockport for coffee and Battenberg cake, having maintained the previous end-of-day's
readout of 76mpg. and Battenberg cake, having maintained the previous end-of-day's
readout of 76mpg. inadvertent diversion into Following the cake break, an Alderley Edge, home of the off-duty Premiership footballer, lost us time but marginally improved our fuel consumption on
the way to Devecliff Hall Hotel (DE13 ODJ). It was then through Macclesfield, up and over Shining Tor (1,834m above sea level a gross miscalculation), around Buxton to Leek, and then Ashbourne.
We arrived at Rellesten-on-Dove, north of Burton-on-Trent, for coffee and chocolate cake 0.1mpg up on the start of the day.
The A38 took CM towards Derby, and then a brief flirtation with the B5023 saw the Kangoo once again heading for the Peak District. Some might think we were heading in the wrong direction, but the plan was to avoid potential traffic on the A6 and Ml. Chatsworth House quickly came and went, unlike the slow trudge through the south-west of Sheffield where our average mpg was once again devastated by stop-start traffic. Then it was back uphill, again, to Tankersley Manor, where we would surely receive many accolades for driving such an ambitious route. Needless to say we didn't win, but the Kangoo (and CM) didn't disgrace itself either. By taking a more direct route we covered 335 miles (by contrast the winner travelled 362.9 miles) but took in too many long drawn out climbs. A topography map is definitely needed for next time, but a third-place finish, behind the Fiesta (108.82mpg) and Corsavan (78.09mpg) in the LCV category will suffice. At the official brimming, the Kangoo recorded a 71.03mpg average, 8.11% more than the manufacturer figure, and more importantly 0.03mpg ahead of our French rivals. •