<%@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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Kolkata to Gaya

The team has come back from the north east and I have to say it was quite an experience gong through those beautiful little states. Even though the scenery has been breathtaking, we haven’t been so lucky with the roads. The Ikons have taken a severe beating from car sized potholes. The Fiesta got stuck in a mud pit which on the national highway on the way to Aizawl. The team reached Kolkata on Thursday night and spent Friday catching up on lost sleep. Today morning we left for Gaya in Bihar which is about 400kms away. But the good part is that we take the NH2 also known as the Golden Quadrilateral. We eased out of our hotel at 11am. It took us about 45 minutes to get out of the city. The GQ is a wide divided four lane highway which allows us to keep up a good pace. It was easy to keep a constant 80-90kph almost throughout our journey. Constant pace and light foot on the throttle are keys to getting good fuel economy. The drive was mostly uneventful and we reached the Gaya turnoff at 6.00pm. After tanking up, we weren’t surprised to see the lead Ikon returned 31kpl and this with the aircon running for most of the time. The second Ikon managed 26.13kpl as it was carrying more luggage and passengers. Tomorrow, we head to the holy city of Varanasi which is roughly 250kms away and our route will take us on the GQ again so we are expecting good figures again.