<%@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 26 Lucknow - Jhansi

We left for Lucknow from Jhansi to start our third leg. The cars are running realRly well after the service. It was a hot day to start with. The temperature was 38.3 degree celsius at 11:30 in the morning when we left from the hotel. The roads were really in a bad shape. We encounter countless number of diversion all the way uptill Jhansi. We had to be really careful of large potholes which could have damaged the suspension. Due to which we had a really hard time in keeping a constant speed. The hot conditions were really testing on the drivers, especially on the non-AC car driver. We didn’t enjoy the drive that much, because we really missed the scenic beauty of north India. Driving through these conditions we did not expect the cars to be as efficient as they turned out to be after the filling at the Jhansi pump, the first Ikon delivered 32.32kpl and the second Ikon which was running with the a/c on managed 24.64kpl.