<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Autocar India Ford Drive 2009
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Ford India and Autocar India are on an epic 20,000km drive across the country. The 'Ikon Cross Country Drive' will pass through 26 state capitals and three union territories of India and will take a total of 46 days to cover the entire distance.

The drive was flagged off from Ford’s manufacturing facility in Chennai on 22nd April 2009. A Ford Ikon with the new 1.4-litre DuraTorq, common-rail TDCi engine under its hood, is the chosen vehicle for this pan-India drive. The car is a standard Ikon diesel, without any modifications what-so-ever. The car will be undergoing service checks at stopovers at Ford's widespread authorized service centres en-route the 20000km run.
The journey will test both man and machine as it traverses through varied and extreme conditions. From the sapping heat of Rajasthan to the numbing chill of the Himalayas; from rutted mountain trails to smooth expressways; from the gridlock of Hosur Road to the runway-like Rajpath; the drive will encounter the complete tapestry of climatic, geographical and road conditions.
The car is manned by a two person crew from Autocar India who are rotated every six days. KPMG have been appointed as independent auditors to validate the proceedings and the end result of the drive program.

The team will monitor and log every parameter of the car’s performance including fuel consumption, tyre wear, and consumables like engine oil, brake fluid etc to establish its true-world fuel efficiency and cost of ownership after 20,000km.
The drive will end on 6th June 2009 at the Ford India's manufacturing plant in Chennai.
 
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Day 12 Daman - Gandhinagar

After a good night’s sleep, we headed out of the hotel on time for a change. Today’s drive was going to be around 400kms long and it was going to be on the Golden Quadrilateral NH8. I’ve driven this road a number of times and I know for a fact that the roads are wide and the surface smooth.

Expecting the drive to last around 8hrs with rest stops, we knew that today was going to be an early night for the team at Gandhinagar. Once out of the hustle and bustle of Daman, we joined NH8 and drove at a good clip heading towards Surat. From experience, Surat is always clogged with traffic thanks to some unfinished flyovers. But today we hit Surat shortly after lunch so traffic was thin. We passed Surat without wasting too much time and reached Vadodara around 5.30pm.

After crossing Vadodara, we turned off to the beautiful National Expressway 1 which connects Vadodara and Ahmedabad. 94kms of expressway with thin traffic bodes well as far as fuel economy is concerned. Maintaining three digit speeds, we closed in on Ahmedabad and reached at 7.30pm. From here, Gandhinagar is only about 30kms away. But thanks to our GPS, we were directed into Ahmedabad instead of the bypass which cost us nearly an hour and probably half a kpl. We finally reached Gandhinagar at 9.00pm. After tanking up, the lead Ikon returned an impressive 30.0kpl while the second Ikon gave 29.68kpl. The Fiesta managed 14.11kpl. Tomorrow we head to Udaipur after the press conference. Hopefully we will leave on time.