Join the Carsguide Hyundai Santa Fe Team R every day of the Eco Challenge.
The Eco Challenge is a 3000km race through the centre of Australia from Darwin to Adelaide for new 'green' cars built by major manufacturers and available for purchase by the public. Running for the first time as part of the Global Green Challenge, the Eco Challenge will test the green credentials of all the teams participating.
Carsguide journalist Keith Didham will be driving a Hyundai Santa Fe CRDi to Alice Springs, where Carsguide.com.au editor Karla Pincott will take the wheel for the second half from 'The Alice' to Adelaide.
Be sure to check out our Global Green Challenge section for our daily blogs as team R travels the 3000kms to Adelaide.
Friday, rally eve…
Keith Didham
Wayward camels, monster road trains and the chance you may perish due to any number of problems, we will be lucky if we make it to the finish line, 3000km and a week later down the Stuart Highway…
Northern Territory and South Australian officials don’t mince words when it comes to laying down the law for competitors in the inaugural Global Green Challenge.
At a safety briefing for all team drivers in Darwin, the constabulary gave advanced warning they know we are coming and will be watching seeming from behind every boulder and should any competitor creep over the speed limit out on the highway or in the dozen or so local settlements on the route severe penalties will be enforced with wallets opened and cash removed – or worse your licence and car confiscated .
There are warnings about traffic hazards, like desert dwellers who wander the highway and we should keep an eye out for the bloke with two camels and half a red car in tow, who has was spotted a few days ago.
The warning about giant eagles feeding on road kill, fresh from the road trains the night before, gets our attention. The sound advice is to go around them because – like a Mexican standoff – they won’t give up their free tucker for any car. Same goes for wandering cattle, emus, kangaroos and camels that should be given right of way unless you want a mess.
Oh, then there’s the road trains – 50m giants long travelling at 110km/h ‘so don’t park in the middle of the road’. As if.
There’s also the warning about having to dodge the trucks carrying half a house – apparently a common sight on the highway.Welcome to motoring in the Top End. We can’t wait for the start.
I’ll have one eye on the speedo and one on the fuel gauge, while my co driver can be the camel-spotter. I reckon we won’t miss the bloke with half a red car though.
Meanwhile teams are talking tactics – windows up with air conditioning on, best speeds to conserve fuel, how not to get lost on the first stage from Darwin to Katherine.
Saturday: the green diet
Keith Didham
I’ve just discovered the latest way to shed weight. The Eco-friendly Green Challenge diet, guaranteed to make you sweat, and hopefully drop a few kilos.
First, take a suitable vehicle – in this case Hyundai’s impressive Santa Fe, a mid-sized soft roader which has been revamped and which goes on sale next week.
We’re driving the Santa Fe in this year’s 3000km challenge from Darwin to Adelaide in a real-world test of fuel consumption.
But being a challenge, my co-driver and fellow Carsguide writer Chris Riley decided to get smart. And it turns out all the other drivers, seeking an edge, thought the same. Why not save fuel by turning off the vehicle’s air conditioning?
Well all know air conditioning robs a vehicle of power and therefore adds to daily running costs. It can’t be too hard to drive with it switched off and the windows up … right?
Wrong. Today’s leg from Darwin to Katherine was 376km and tomorrow we do double the distance from Katherine to Tennant Creek is another 668km.
Now, picture a 4WD wagon, no air conditioning, windows up, travelling at 80km/h to save fuel as the temperature sizzles from 37 to 40 deg C. Liken it to sitting in a confined but comfortable space with a hot air dryer going full blast in your face for five hours and you get the picture. You sweat in this mobile sauna.
Never mind trying to drive and dodge wandering cattle on the Stuart Highway.
Still, a truckload of bottled water, a simply divine ice-cream at our only stop at the Hayes Creek roadhouse and several hours of music from the Angels made it bearable.
We made it to Katherine with just two minutes to spare on the time clock otherwise we would have been penalised for being late. And how well did the Santa Fe do? At the moment that’s up for debate.
By our reckoning we are in the top six in the field, but like all good rallies there are questions over the first day’s results which saw HSV’s V8 Maloo record a remarkable 65 per cent gain in fuel efficiency, running at just 5.34 litres per 100km. That’s from a ute with an official combined fuel figure of 15.1.
Unimpressed mutterings at day’s end about that result, but it turns out the Maloo had been underfilled so the fuel will average out.
The cars which did impress the field were the Skoda Superb (20 per cent gain) and Ford’s XR6 Falcon (37 per cent).
And James Stanford did well to even get to Katherine on a postie bike fueled by methylated spirits.
For the record, the two Santa Fes – the other being driven by rally veteran Ed Ordynski and motoring guru John Cadogan – averaged an affordable 5.8 and 5.9l/100km, which is about 12 per cent below the official fuel consumption guide. And yes, Ed’s team had the air conditioning off as well.
We would have done better had we not stopped at nearly all of Darwin’s traffic lights. A red light is a cruel thing to face when you are trying to be smooth.
The biggest winner for the day was the all-electric Tesla roadster, the $160,000 silent rocket that drew crowds. Owner Simon Hackett says he’s getting 400km between recharges – being done from a portable generator on the back of a truck.
Sunday: Timing is everything
Keith Didham
Sixty seconds is not a lot of time. Over the space of nine hours it’s miniscule.
But that’s the time by which we scraped in to avoid a late penalty after day two – the toughest day so far – in the Global Green Challenge.
We were given a maximum time of nine hours to cover the 668km from Katherine to Tennant Creek. The slower you go, of course, the less fuel you use, but go too slow and you get penalised.
On day one, fellow Carsguide co driver Chris Riley and I got to the finish with 11 minutes to spare and we thought that was a close call. Today it was just a minute. That’s too close.
And that was after a day of continuously doing mental arithmetic to work out the distance run against travel speed, and the time we needed to be at the finish – keeping in mind we had to maintain fuel efficiency in our Hyundai Santa Fe, which is working out to be an impressive wagon.
The Santa Fe, which goes on sale next week with a new engine and six-speed manual or automatic transmission, has been turning heads everywhere we go for the frugal fuel consumption it offers for a SUV.
This turbodiesel 1.9-tonne vehicle with constant four-wheel drive has been running all day at just 5.5l/100km. For several hours we got the average down to 4.9 litres before strong headwinds slowed our progress. That’s remarkable considering we experimented and ran most of the day on cruise control.
The other Santa Fe in the team, driven by rally veteran Ed Ordynski and motoring guru John Cadogan – who won the Challenge last year – has been doing marginally better. For the second day in a row they beat us, by using less than half a tank of diesel over the 668km course. We will be out to make amends tomorrow.
It was another tough day, running without the air conditioning to save fuel as the temperature soared to over 40 degrees. It’s also been a day we saw a lot of road kill, black skid marks on the highway from heavy braking and dead cattle on roadside have sadly become a common sight. But in nature’s way, the hawks and crows are efficient cleaners, leaving only bones behind.
Today’s result proved interesting.The winner of the Global Green Challenge is the vehicle which, over the 3000km journey, records the biggest gain over its official fuel consumption rating. So all cars, from a thumping V8 ute to a three-cylinder micro are on an even footing.
As predicted, the large cars are doing well because they have greater opportunities for fuel consumption gain.
After day two, the HSV V8 Maloo ute has a commanding lead in the production car class with a 47 per cent improvement. Ford’s Falcon six-cylinder XR6 is second with a 39.5 per cent gain, followed by Holden’s Sportwagon with 33.5 per cent and Skoda’s prestige diesel powered Superb on 32 per cent.
We are sitting in sixth spot, up from 10 on day one, with a 21.2 per cent gain. Our teammate is fifth on 21.7 per cent..
Tomorrow we are off to Alice before the Global Challenge heads for Adelaide.
Monday: diesel and dust
Keith Didham
Yesterday had started with an earthquake that shook us awake at our overnight stop in Katherine. But today – day three, 668km away in Tennant Creek – started with a typical Outback dust storm that turned the sky an odd shade of grey above this rough and tough frontier town.
The strong winds and reduced visibility was a test as the cars in the Challenge headed for the halfway mark at Alice Springs.
It was an easy run today – just 512km and the temperature had dropped to 34 deg, making conditions in the cabin of the new Hyundai Santa Fe a little more bearable because we, like most competitors, have been running without air conditioning to reduce fuel consumption.
And the landscape has changed too, with the majestic rocky outcrops and termite hills replacing the open savannah country. But the number of abandoned cars and dead cattle was a stark reminder of just how tough life in the Northern Territory can be.
On day two we finished the nine-hour trip with just 1 minute to spare before time penalties were imposed. Today we time-managed our run a little better, sneaking into the finish with two minutes up our sleeve after 512km on the road, the last two hours we drove at 70km/h to correct too much speed earlier in the day.
Hyundai’s Team R had another impressive day on fuel consumption. The 2.2-litre all-wheel drive Santa Fe has an official combined fuel rating of 6.7l/100km. Our wagon finished the day returning 5.39l/100km, against just pipped by our second team car driven by rally ace Ed Ordynski with a fuel consumption of 5.18l/100km.
A the halfway mark both Santa Fes have used less than 5.4l/100km which is remarkable for a constant all-wheel drive which weighs close to 2 tonnes.
I now hand over the drive to Carsguide’s Karla Pincott for tomorrow’s start to the second half of the event, from Alice Springs to Adelaide. My advice to her: keep it smooth.
Tuesday: change is good
Karla Pincott.
Tuesday’s run from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy saw a change of drivers for our Santa Fe, and a change of rules for everybody.
After yesterday’s fuel spillage on the Ford Fiesta EcoNETIC, organisers have decided to alter the all-important refill procedure.
The cars are now topped up first thing in the morning, and a nominated member from each team does the duty under the scrutiny of the organisers.
A morning fill has been welcomed by the teams. There had been some grumbles about the practice of topping up at the end of the stage, as the fuel could still be warm enough to be expanded on the early cars over the line -- while it could have contracted in those who followed behind and had to wait for their turn at the bowser.
With the entire field now sitting overnight before refuelling, there should be no question about disparity.
And on the subject of fuel, fellow Carsguide journalists Keith Didham and Chris Riley have piloted this Santa Fe well, with Didham handing over his part of the driving at Alice Springs 684km leg, which gave us a 5.37l/100km average – or 19.8 per cent improvement.
That put us at 9th in the field at the end of Tuesday, three places behind our team-mates John Cadogan and Ed Ordynski in the other Santa Fe, who sit in 6th place after having whittled their consumption down to 4.14l/100km, which gives them an improvement of 26.3 per cent.
And while most car fans’ eyes were on the Holden vs Ford battle last weekend during the V8 Supercar round on the Gold Coast, a similar Red vs Blue joust has characterised the Eco Challengte.
The Holden Special Vehicles Maloo is still leading the economy race with 7.59l/100km and 49.7 per cent improvement overall, with the Ford Falcon XR6 in second place with 6.98l/100km and 40.3 per cent improvement. Sitting in third is the car that has turned out to be a sleeper success, the Skoda Superb diesel with their fuel figure of 4.6l/100km giving them 33.3 per cent improvement.
Wednesday: MAMONAL is a misnomer
Karla Pincott
You occasionally hear this stretch called MAMONAL: miles and miles of not a lot. But there’s plenty to see – especially if you’re cruising at the gentle pace we’ve pegged for the Hyundai Santa Fe’s best fuel economy.
We’ve got 541km to cover between Coober Pedy and Port Augusta, and there are plenty of features – even in an arid landscape that pans out into a red flat stretching so far in places you can see the curvature of the earth.
Wedgetail eagles are a common sight feeding on roadkill, and rising grudgingly on huge wingspans as we pass.
And there are one or two meetings with the solar cars, whose teams have been camped out in the desert but quickly overtake us once they get going. These mica-coated ‘cockroaches’ are improving their technology every year, and the leaders are averaging more than 100km/h.
In spots the red is carpeted with a vibrant purple. Very pretty, but the experts tell us it’s the noxious weed, Pattersons Curse – which spoils the effect a bit.
The road goes through some gentle slopes near the Flinders Ranges to the west, which prove a challenge for the fuel conservation, but we account for the rises and falls without budging our trip computer figure at all.
Co-driver Chris Riley and I have calculated carefully in Car 6 — and constantly — and coming into Port Augusta we think we’ve got the section nailed.
But we haven’t allowed for three sets of traffic lights and what passes for peak hour traffic in the seaside town.
After grinding our teeth through some relaxed drivers, we arrive at the town’s fuel stop with a two-minute penalty and a fuel reading of 5.8L/100km – a 13.7 per cent improvement.
We’re kicking ourselves about the timing, but pleased with the fuel result and still determined to best Car 5, which is pipping us with 5.4L/100km and 19.6 per cent.
Thursday/Friday: End in sight
Karla Pincott
Just a short 302km of highway separates us from Adelaide, and Car 6 is determined not to misjudge the timing today.
As we head toward the Eyre Peninsula, the landscape starts to look more inhabited, more rural rather than Outback, and we pass what look like olive groves and orchards.
Being a short run, there’s no stop designated on the highway, but there’s plenty of stopping and starting once the cars get inside the Adelaide city area.
The urban circuit on Friday morning takes us in a couple of loops through the city, out past one of the famed Penfolds wineries, and criss-crossing back on ourselves through the city and into Victoria Square in Adelaide’s heart.
Final calculations are done, and in Car 6 we’ve managed 5.4L/100km and 20 per cent improvement overall. But we still finished behind Car 5, which had a final result of 5.1L/100km and improvement of 24 per cent – enough for it to win the Medium SUV category of the Eco Challenge.
