1575 km in 3 days in an Uno

I can’t pretend the drive (

map route) to Wellington for the Pat Metheny Trio concert was an economy run but I had the Etrex GPS running all the time so it was interesting to see how the numbers added up.

I matched the traffic flow, running at the speed limit where possible, managing a moving average of 79.8 km/h over the 1575km distance. Given that included getting in & out of Auckland, a couple of commuter type trips around Wellington and a slow crawl through Waikanae, 5km took about an hour thanks to a traffic jam caused by a roadside fire, it was a respectable speed.

The hills were tackled at full throttle when required which is quite often! The haul onto the volcanic plateau around Mt Ruapehu, with 1000m altitude knocking a few kilowatts off the usual massive 34kw (45hp!) available, is full throttle all the way yet the mighty 1 litre Ferrari still managed to average 5.7 l/100km (49.3mpg). Not bad for an old car!

The big 32.8l fill (Wiri to Foxton) + only having 98 octane, can’t use 91 and no 96, meant it was the first time I’ve managed to fit in more than $50