Audi and the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) have set a new world record for the most distance travelled on a single tank of fuel. The car, an Audi A6 TDI Ultra, was driven for 1865.23km on a single tank of fuel at an average speed of 78kph.
With motoring journalist Andrew Frankel and race driver Rebecca Jackson at the wheel, the drive commenced in the Netherlands. The A6 Ultra was driven from Maastricht, through Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, Germany and Italy towards the Balkans, with the tank finally running empty at Nova Sad in Hungary. The record-setting drive was originally supposed to be 1,600km long, but achieved 1,865km.
The driving team was accompanied by a RAC vehicle with route planners and observers. The route was specifically selected to avoid heavy traffic and stop-start situations, which would have degraded fuel efficiency.
The Audi A6 ultra was chosen because of its large 73-litre fuel tank and its 28.78kpl fuel efficiency figure. It has a 2.0-litre 187bhp TDi engine.
Excluding an exterior wrap, no mechanical modifications were made to the car. There are two factors that helped the A6 ultra achieve this record. The first is the inclusion of glass fiber-reinforced springs in the suspension set-up, instead of the steel springs. These springs have reduced the kerb weight by 4.4kg. The other factor is the new S-Tronic 7-speed dual clutch gearbox which is tuned towards better combustion.
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