Day 4 change is good

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 Challenge.  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.