<%@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 7 Panjim - Hampi

We reached pretty late last night and overslept, but it was okay as we had to wait for the Fiesta to get the ABS issue sorted. A quick cleaning of sensors and wheel alignment was carried out on the Fiesta. Laziness on our part meant we finally left Panjim at 3pm which was more than five hours later than our scheduled departure.
Our intended route was Karwar – Ankola – Hubli – Hospet. Our hotel was located at Hospet which is about 12kms away from Hampi.

We took NH17 out of Panjim and headed towards the beach town of Karwar, the roads were narrow so progress was slower than expected. We intended to join NH63 at Ankola all the way to Hospet. Driving carefully, the fuel needle only showed movement around 270kms into the drive. This was a good indication of the fuel economy and we expected 23kpl+ figures once again.

We passed Karwar around 630pm and we still had a long way to go. The traffic was thin but driving at night should always be taken up very carefully because the oncoming glare of headlights can be a pain. But to our surprise, the traffic was much disciplined and dippers were being used regularly.

We stopped for dinner at Hubli at around 1130pm. It was clear that we needed to pick up the pace if we wanted any sort of sleep before the next day’s drive. Driving fast towards Hospet, we missed seeing a good number of rumbler strips which were unmarked and I’m hoping we didn’t do too much damage to the cars.

When we left Panjim, I knew it was going to be difficult to make it to Hospet in time and that’s exactly what happened. We had been driving through the day and the first set of drivers rested as the second set carried on. We finally pulled into the drive way of our hotel at 4am in the morning and headed straight to bed.

As I write this, we are at the hotel and getting ready to head out to the pump for the fillup. The details of which will be given in the next report at Hyderabad.