Video: Top Gear attempts 800 miles on a single tank
In this episode, we find Top Gear's inimitable Jeremy Clarkson attempting to squeeze every last drop of derv out of an unmodified diesel-powered production car in an effort to travel 800 miles on a single tank.
This is a challenging enough proposition as it is, but Clarkson isn't messing about in some oil-burning microcar, he's doing it in an Audi A8 motivated by a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 diesel... not exactly a thrift-minded machine. In fact, it's a torque-monster lashed to a gigantic luxury car... something of a middle-finger to the Prius set.
Given that Clarkson doesn't resort to NASCAR-style bump drafting, aero fairings, or weight-stripping, he resigns himself to trundling about with the engine never turning over 1,200 RPM (that, friends, is discipline). In fact, Clarkson's forced to be such a skinflint that he runs around with virtually all of the A8's considerable creature comforts off, and even answers nature's call with a plastic bottle in an attempt to avoid having to stop.
So.. can he eke out 800 miles? Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of his magical miserly tour to find out.
[Source: TopGear via Youtube]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
source1 6:07PM (6/12/2006)
saw that on tv about a month ago
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Dr. Woo 6:08PM (6/12/2006)
I remember this episode. This is from way back when the V8 TDI first came out.
Speaks volumes for Audi engineering.
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Erik Ruggels 6:23PM (6/12/2006)
i saw it last year as well, i'm hoping the new diesel will allow audi to bring truly astounding cars like this state side.
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Adam 6:27PM (6/12/2006)
STOP MAKING THESE POSTS, THEY ARE LAMER THAN TYPING IN ALL CAPS.
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Sherief 7:00PM (6/12/2006)
Wow. This is an oooold clip :-P
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Jones 7:13PM (6/12/2006)
wow that post is sooo old. seen that video over 20 times now.
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Tim 7:42PM (6/12/2006)
Why does everyone feel the need to point out that they've seen this already? Does it make them superior that out of all the crap online they got to it before it hit autoblog?
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Bob-o 7:51PM (6/12/2006)
Yes.
People go to media sites to see new information, not to see old rehashed beaten-to-death topics. What if CNN put out their news topics a month after everyone else? You think people would still watch CNN?
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epp_b 8:18PM (6/12/2006)
Yes, that is pretty old (from mid-2004). Nonetheless, it's a surprisingly enjoyable clip, even without the usual tire smoking madness of Top Gear.
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Loraan 8:24PM (6/12/2006)
I enjoyed watching this clip. Additionally, I feel compelled to point out that the word is "eke", not "eek".
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/eke%20out
http://www.answers.com/topic/eke-out
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doglet 8:33PM (6/12/2006)
god that episode is good. deff one of my favorite segments on the show.
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chewy 9:34PM (6/12/2006)
Awesome fuel economy. But I think that in the video there are the Imperial galons which are much bigger than American. BUt I bet it would still get over 30 mpg in the US. Diesel really is that great.
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chewy 9:38PM (6/12/2006)
Awesome fuel economy. But I think that in the video there are the Imperial galons which are much bigger than American. BUt I bet it would still get over 30 mpg in the US. Diesel really is that great.
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Stoneman 9:38PM (6/12/2006)
I love Audi cars. I drove the A4 and A3... both reviewed of course. I cannot say enough good things about them. Except they are so damn expensive!
Stoneman
http://www.stonemanautoreview.com
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jeff 10:24PM (6/12/2006)
people who go through the trouble to post something just to bitch about having already seen something before have got to relax and just keep scrolling down the page next time. Autoblog.com is a free site and doesn't owe you anything, if you don't like them posting stuff like this, then stop visiting the site, and certainly stop bitching. Bitching is annoying, so annoying that its got me bitching about bitching.
I think i read on the Top Gear more recently that the new diesel XJ was able to get a bit over 1000 miles on one tank.
I haven't watched the video yet, (yes that's right, some people haven't seen this before and wouldn't have if it weren't for autoblog posting it), but i'm assuming from Autoblog's write up that this is a sort of "up yours" to the hybrid crowd. I'd just like to point out that there's nothing stopping anybody from making a hybrid TDI A8. Then Clarkson could stop and piss as many times as he'd wish cause he wouldn't be wasting as much energy in the brakes.
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Eric L. 12:13AM (6/13/2006)
Oh give autoblog a break. Not everyone BT's the UK version of TG so they can watch entire episodes. Ok so most everyone does. But for those who don't, I don't see whats wrong with making a couple new TG fans by showing interesting clips. Wait you don't like Jeremy Clarkson? Are you sure you really want to read autoblog, a website about cars?
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tekdemon 2:52AM (6/13/2006)
Well like I've always pointed out, if we got everyone to drive without a lead foot it'd probably save more gas than if everyone started driving hybrids. But seriously, if there's one thing that's hard to change it's human nature lol
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DieselMan 4:32AM (6/13/2006)
Been there done that, with a smaller tank even.
320d with 62liters diesel in them...1290km and did not even tried that hard: hourly stops for "ma lady", who used evey gas station as an opportunity to "freshen up"...traffic, french drivers, mountains, etc...in one word: north of Spain -->> Germany with that single gas tank...including some "high spirited" driving when showing to a 630i the way arround in the mountains.
If your gas tank is 100-120liters...than doing 1280km/800miles is not that great...
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jv 5:39AM (6/13/2006)
Keeping it under 1200 rpms is perfectly natural for a diesel, or even a torquey gas vehicle ..well one that makes enough power down low *at part throttle* (i.e. vacuum) which would mostly limit the gas engines to big blocks. Anyways this is how cars like the current vette Z06 get 26 mpg EPA highway.
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MrWankel 6:37AM (6/13/2006)
Keeping it under 1200 RPMs (turbo entry) for a turbodiesel engine is not natural at all.
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