The new Volkswagen Passat 1.4 TSI DSG has set a new South African record by a petrol passenger car of driving over 2000km on a single tank. The new Passat drove a distance of 2029 kilometres from the South African and Zimbabwean border gate in Beit Bridge to Moorreesburg – about 90km north of Cape Town – in two and half days.
The average fuel consumption was 4.1 litres per 100km and total amount of fuel used was 83.19 litres. The average speed was 69km/h.
Rodney Kinsey, who masterminded the economy drive, said: “We are very excited with the performance of the new Passat TSI to set the new South African record of driving over 2000km on a single tank. We always believed that the new Passat TSI engine had the capability to better our previous record of 1941km that we set with the Golf TDI Bluemotion in 2011.”
Kinsey added: “We filled the tank with 83.19 litres of fuel which was 17.19 litres more than the standard capacity of 66 litres. The extra litres of fuel were important in helping us to achieve our record drive.”
Six drivers were used, who each drove for two hour stints during the journey.
One of the official observers included the well-known and veteran motoring journalist, Malcolm Kinsey.
