<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Autocar India Ford Drive 2009
www.india.ford.com                                
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 4 - Trivandrum - Mangalore

Today’s drive was going to be a tough one and we knew it. Covering a distance of around 650kms on mostly two lane roads was going to be a test of our patients so we decided to leave early and left the hotel at 6.30am. After a nice breakfast at a small idly joint we were all charged for the drive ahead. The traffic was thin and the weather was pleasant and we made good progress. But as time passed our progress became agonizingly slow thanks to increasing traffic and narrow roads at 11.45am, we hit Kochi and had covered 207kms as per the GPS
We were going through god’s own country and what a beautiful country it was. Surrounded by greenery and water, we got a taste of what life would be like in kerala .
I’m pretty sure that the team would have liked to stay here longer. But alas, we had a schedule to keep and a town to reach, so we pressed on.
We being auto journalist are used to driving with the pedal to the metal. Fuel economy doesn’t excite us as much. Every once in a while our GPS would direct us to some narrow roads (which it thought would be quicker) and provide us some excitement as we ignored the directions and let the GPS go in to a route recalculations frenzy .
At 6.30pm we passed Kozhikode which was 391kms from Trivandrum. Which was more or less the midpoint of our journey. After this we hit major traffic and our progress slowed down even more. By now it was pretty clear we were not going to make in time for dinner at Mangalore. Munching on snacks with a constant supply of Red bull, coke and water we drove on.
We finally hit the outskirt of Mangalore at 12.15am; it took us another half an hour to the hotel. Since all the pumps were closed we decided to fill up in the morning and the cars returned 28.16kpl and other car returned 28.04kpl. Our support fiesta returned 12.59kpl.

Trip details
GPS distance – 652.4kms
Total time – 16hrs 5mins
Moving time – 14hrs 53mins
Stop time – 1hr 13mins
Average speed – 40.5kph