<%@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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Shillong - Agartala

Today’s drive to Agartala was about 500km long. Accordingly we left from Shillong at around 7:15am. The route mostly consists of ghat sections, however the roads are wide and there are barely any private vehicles running on this route. We covered about 350km by around 6:45pm and reached a place called Manu, where we came across a CRPF check post. The officer in charge informed us that the area beyond the check-post, towards Agartala wasn’t safe to travel at night, hence the traffic was held back at the check-post till the next morning. Vehicles were also only allowed to travel in a convoy of about a few hundred vehicles which mostly consists of trucks. The convoy would be led by a CRPF jeep which has armed security personnel in it. So, due to security issues, we had to stay back at a place called Kumar ghat for the night. The next morning we set out early at around 5:30am so we could stay ahead in the convoy and reach Agartala early. The road beyond the check-post consists of ghats and is pretty narrow at some places. Making good time, we reached Agartala at around 10:45am. On filling up both the cars, the first Ikon delivered 25.49kpl and the second Ikon delivered 22.09kpl.