MAMMOTH LAKES, California
I was invited to drive in the Audi Mileage Marathon by Michelin, which is supplying all the tires for the two dozen participating vehicles.
One of those vehicles, wearing competitor No. 10 on its windshield and rear side windows – as well as a large image of Mr. Bib on its hood – is a 2009 Audi A4 sedan powered by a 3.0-liter TDI (turbo direct injection) diesel engine.
At the briefing for drivers participating in this, the fourth – and final – leg of the cross-country mileage marathon, we were told that we weren’t merely driving. We were competing.
Each car carries an on-board computer that records all sorts of parameters, including average and top speed, fuel use, brake applications, etc. At the end of each day’s driving, points are to be awarded under a formula that factors in both fuel economy and average speed.
After all, says Audi, the benefit of driving with clean diesel technology is more than fuel economy. It’s “driving pleasure with a clear conscience.”
To make sure there will be no cheating (as pleasurable as some might find that exercise), a seal is placed on each fuel filler door by an official of the International Motor Sports Association, and that seal is not to be broken until the end of the day’s drive, when all cars are refilled -- by IMSA personnel -- with Shell clean diesel fuel.
There will be competition in four categories – Q7 and Q5 utility vehicles, A4 sedans and A3 Sportbacks. The A4 group includes seven cars – four in Audi colors, one with the big yellow Shell on its roof, one with the emblems of Italian clothing maker Belstaff, and our silver-and-blue Michelin machine.
Weight is not a friend of fuel economy and our car figures to be the heaviest in our class because we’d be traveling with three people – and three people’s luggage – aboard. In addition to my co-driver, Jaime Gabaldoni, Autos Channel editor of Terra Networks USA, Bob Massa of Michelin will be riding along in the back seat.
Now, Bob’s a wonderful guy and all, but Jaime and I certainly don’t need him or his big, 60-pound duffle bag and other gear weighting us down. But, we really can’t just ditch him – not in Las Vegas and certainly not in the middle of Death Valley, so we’ll have to make the best of the situation.
And we did!
I drove the first leg – from the Wynn hotel, down the Vegas strip, out across the desert to Pahrump and beyond, dropping into Death Valley near Zabriske Point – but then leaving the assigned route for a 17-mile each way detour to Badwater Basin, at 282 feet below sea level the lowest point in North America. (In the photo, there’s a sign high up on the cliff face behind the car. The sign reads “SEA LEVEL.”)
I got us back to the Death Valley Visitors Center, where we found some shade and ate box lunches. Then Jaime took the wheel and we headed out across the Valley, climbing up to Town Pass, then plunging down into the Panamint Valley and then up again, up and up and yet up even more to Lone Pine (at the foot of Mount Whitney, tallest mountain in the Lower 48) and further north to Mammoth Mountain, where IMSA officials broke the fuel seal, refilled the car and downloaded data from the on-board computer before we made our way a couple more miles to the Westin Monache Resort, some 8100 feet above sea level, or more than an 8300-foot, fuel-sucking climb from Badwater Basin.
Jaime was particularly serious about the competition and said he’d been working on his fuel-saving driving skills that dated back to in his native Peru (he now lives near Miami), when he was dating a woman who lived many miles from his home and gasoline was very expensive so Jaime stretched the fuel he could afford by shifting his car into neutral and coasting down hills.
I drove pretty much in my normal fashion. Though I didn’t do any jackrabbit starts, though I turned off the engine rather than let the car idle when we pulled over to take photos of the scenery, but I didn’t make a big effort to drive conservatively, figuring that if the technology really is as good as Audi says it is, the car would prove itself.
It did, helped, no doubt, by Jaime’s skills on the hills. At the second day drivers’ briefing, the first day’s results were announced. Not only had Jaime and I – and Bob – beat all the other A4s, we had the best score overall!
We’d averaged 36.6 miles per gallon – 1.6 mpg better than any of the other A4s and, in fact, better than any of the other cars in the other categories as well -- while averaging 51 miles per hour – making us the fastest of the A4s as well.
By the way, we’d kept the mileage-draining air conditioning on throughout the drive. Hey, it’s one thing to want to win; another to avoid being miserable doing it.
Under a point system derived for the event, we’d totaled 209 points, five more than the winning Q5 (No. 16), the new mid-size Audi crossover vehicle coming to U.S. Audi dealerships next March and the only other vehicle in the marathon to post a score of 200 or more this day.
While our figures may have been impressive, what was really impressive was that an Audi A4, a sedan equipped with all sorts of luxuries -- Alcantara-lined seats, navigation, etc. – and carrying three people and luggage that overflowed from a good-sized trunk into the rear-seat of the passenger compartment – averaged better than 36 mpg while driving – basically – uphill!
The 2009 Audi A4 equipped with a gasoline-burning, 3.2-liter V6 is rated at 17-mpg in town and at 26 on the highway. Here we are, in the same car but with a clean-diesel, 3.0-liter V6, and we’re averaging better than 36 on basically a day of uphill driving.
We may have won the day, but the real winners figure to be those who opt for clean diesel when Audi makes it available, perhaps as early as sometime next year.
-- Larry Edsall