D-MAX Duo Go Far On Few Litres

EAGLE FARM, AUSTRALIA – June 6, 2011: D-MAX off-road rally aces Bruce Garland and Harry Suzuki recently used less than 2˝ tankfuls to drive 3,452km from Melbourne to Cairns in an Isuzu D-MAX crew ute loaded with 260kg of camping gear.

The normally tearaway twosome throttled back and drove for economy, using just 189.67 litres of diesel to average 5.49 litres/100km in Isuzu Ute’s 2011 Max Run Challenge fuel economy competition.

Winner announced
The competition winner was Rex Momus from Perth, who alone among over 54,000 entries guessed precisely how many litres the D-MAX rallyists used on their trip.

Rex wins a new D-MAX X-Runner 4x2 manual priced at $37,790 drive away, plus the $10,000 worth of BCF camping gear carried by the Max Run D-MAX plus a year’s supply of Mother Energy Drink.

Real world
The Max Run drive had elements of real world driving in that the D-MAX mostly mixed with main highway traffic at or close to posted speed limits, the drivers threaded through about 20 provincial towns large and small and they stopping at many as well as at roadside cafés, museums, giant telescopes, farms, fishing spots, BCF stores, Isuzu Ute dealers and SatNav dead-ends.

Their refuels, odometer readings and load were verified and security-sealed on-site by RACV, NRMA and RACQ representatives.

Their D-MAX was a 4x2 manual X-Runner, an LS-based limited edition with extra features including sports bar, slimline side steps and leather seats. It was also fitted with an accessory hard tonneau under which was locked the BCF camping gear and cans of Mother Energy Drink.

Hero Hiroaki
Most of the driving was done by Garland’s long-time navigator Hiroaki ‘Harry’ Suzuki as Garland was still recovering from fracturing a vertebra in the Dakar Rally in Chile in January, then undergoing open heart bypass surgery back in Australia soon after. The Max Run was his first taste of ‘competitive’ driving since those health scares.

This was the fifth such Max Run proving D-MAX’s fuel economy credentials since launch late in 2008. The previous four were all one-tank runs in various models and places. The longest distance achieved was 1,716.3 km (including around 175 km of harsh outback gravel) in 2009 by Hans Tholstrup driving an SX crew ute for a 4.43 l/100km average.

Journalist Ewan Kennedy stretched a heavier D-MAX LS 1,448km through some foul outback weather in 2008 to average 4.85 l/100km.

Last year Hans Tholstrup in an LS towed a tonne+ power boat nearly 1,000km from outback Cunnamulla to Coolangatta then up to Brisbane for a 7.86 l/100km average.