Hypermiling VW Golf on tap for Guinness record

By Jay Ramey, Crain News Service

DETROIT (July 13, 2015) — A Volkswagen Golf TDI has just completed a trip around the lower 48 states, covering 8,233.5 miles on just 101.43 gallons of diesel fuel.

The Golf was piloted by Bob Winger, an electronics engineer, and automotive journalist Wayne Gerdes, the founder of cleanmpg.com and an expert hypermiler. (“Hypermiling” is defined as the practice of making adjustments to a vehicle or using driving techniques that will maximize the vehicle's fuel economy.”)

The team's feat cost just $294.98 in diesel fuel, and set the Guinness World Record for the category “lowest fuel consumption — 48 U.S. contiguous states for a non-hybrid car.”

The Golf averaged an impressive 81.17 for the whole trip, which began at VW's headquarters in Herndon, Va. The duo departed on June 22 and returned to Herndon on July 7.

Messrs. Gerdes and Winger held the previous record for visiting the lower 48, which they set in a 2013 Volkswagen Passat TDI achieving 77.99 mpg in the process. Incidentally, the record-setting trip also managed to best the same record for hybrid cars by more than 6 mpg.

“Covering 8,233.5 miles on just 101.43 gallons of Clean Diesel fuel is a remarkable accomplishment, and solid proof of the efficiency and fuel economy of Volkswagen's TDI Clean Diesel vehicles,” said Michael Horn, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America Inc.

Green cars  

The Golf TDI wasn't modified, unless one counts navigation and telemetry equipment and the sponsors' graphics on the outside. The hatch used the stock turbocharged and direct-injected 2.0-liter four-cylinder Clean Diesel engine sipping only Shell diesel fuel, and it rode on Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max tires. The engine is rated at 150 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque on this model, driving the front wheels.

What about fuel economy on your daily commute, without all the hypermiling? Coupled with a six-speed manual transmission, the Golf TDI is rated at 30 mpg in the city and 45 mpg on the highway.

Your move, hybrids.

This report appeared on the website of Autoweek magazine, a Detroit-based sister publication of Tire Business.