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The Hyundai Santa Fe team tackle the 541km MAMONAL stretch between Coober Pedy and Port Augusta Photo Gallery
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.
