N.S. couple complete attempt to set fuel consumption record
Posted Aug 30, 2013 07:50:51 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Nova Scotia couple on a cross-country mission to set the record for the lowest coast-to-coast fuel consumption end their trip in Halifax today.
To beat the record, Garry Sowerby and Lisa Calvi will have to do better than 5.59 litres per 100 kilometres and it’s down to such an exact science, Garry says head winds and tail winds can have an effect on consumption.
They also have to do the speed limit, take as few stops as possible and take traffic patterns into account.
Sowerby calls it, “road prison.”
“We want to do it on the least amount of fuel which means sticking to the Trans Canada and not venturing off much more than a few hundred metres so we’ve been staying in roadside hotels and eating in roadside hotels,” he said. “But like any mission, once you define it, you live it! So we’ve been having some fun.”
So far they’re doing pretty well and Sowerby updated their progress during a stop near the New Brunswick/Quebec border yesterday afternoon.
“The average from Vancouver to here is 4.3 litres per 100 kilometres, which translates around 64 miles to the gallon,” he said.
He added aside from setting the records – he already has four – this trip shows how efficient you can be if you try.
“The other thing is I think too many young Canadians are flying off to Europe or flying off to Thailand when they want to go somewhere, and maybe some young kids can say, ‘If we get the right car, maybe we could do a good old fashioned road trip and check out Canada’,” said Sowerby.
The couple left British Columbia on Aug. 22 in their 2014 Chevy Cruze and finish their trip at Point Pleasant Park at 2 p.m.
