500 Miles

As I was filling my Baja up on the way to work this morning I was wondering if it is possible to get 500 miles out of a stock tank from an old Type 1 Beetle/Baja/Buggy/Ghia. I did a little rough math in my head and it's roughly 5L/100km.

Has anyone managed to do this?
What's the furtherest you've ever drivin on a tank of fuel in your car?

Just a few questions to get the minds stimulated.

Smiley

maybe if u did this to it



5L is nearly 50mpg which is way beyond reach of most modern cars let alone 40 year old vws

the latest suzuki alto which is a purpose built fuel miser with a 1L 3 cyl only averages 4.5L/100
and thats using todays technology

that said best ive ever managed in my bug was when i crossed aus in it along time ago with a stock 1600 between wilcania and broken hill where its dead flat and dead straight i got 7.4L/100

It is confusing when you relate personal Australian experiences, with what you read in American magazines. The measurments are different and cannot be compared! Before 1974 Australia used the Imperial (British) gallon, which was 4.546 litres. The Americans, on the other hand, use the US gallon which is only 3.785 litres. When you refer to '26 or maybe 30mpg' and '18 mpg', which one do you mean?

If we stick to modern measurements then there is no confusion.

Torsion bar Beetle fuel tanks are 40 litres. If you want to drive an arbitrary 500 miles (804.65 km), then you would need to achieve 4.971 L/100 km. VWs generally average between 10 and 11 L/100km around town, and perhaps improve to 8 L/100km on the highway. The best I ever did in my '64 1200 was 474 km on one tank, on a drive to Young from Sydney back in the '80s, which works out at 8.44 L/100 km. I was cruising at 100 km/h, so you could probably do a bit better by keeping below 80, using a feather touch on the throttle, coasting or even shutting off down hills, etc etc. You might get into the 7s, and perhaps into the 6s. But I think getting BELOW 5 in a Beetle is impossible.

It IS possible in a modern VW. In 1978 the Golf Diesel (1.5-litre) was introduced to Australia. It won the Total Oil Economy Run that year, averaging 4.4 L/100km. Kevin Bartlett also drove a Golf Diesel from Sydney to Melbourne to demonstrate its economy, and averaged 3.62 L/100 km.

The Golf 3 Umwelt diesel was the first production VW capable of more than 1,000 km on a standard tank of fuel.

Today's Polo 1.9TDI averages 5.0 L/100km and is capable of up to 900 km on one 45 litre tank. This is the most economical VW currently available for sale in Australia. I drove one for a week last year, and it was a brilliant little car. 74 kW and 240 Nm gave it fantastic performance, faster than my old 2007cc Beetle ever was. And it isn't even the best VW model. In Europe you can buy a model called the Polo BlueMotion, which is VW's ultra-clean 'green' model. With a 60 kW 1.4 TDI engine, it averages 4.9 (urban), 3.2 (extra-urban) and 3.8 (combined). There was one on display at the Sydney Motor Show last year, but sadly it hasn't been released for local sale. Pity - if it was, it would be the most economical car on the Australian market, as well as the greenest (CO2 < 99 g/km), both better than the Toyota Prius.

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/#/new/polo/which-model/engines/fuel-consumption/

The HSV and Holden V8s I drive get better economy than my VWs... not that I'm worried

depends on what size engine you have in the car and how fast you drive it

hmmm, now with my new motor fuel economy is out the window, but when i had my stock 1300 single port i used to get around 350 miles out of a tank, could have possibly pushed more but didnt want to run out of fuel or suck the muck up from the bottom of the tank.... i dont think 500miles is possible but dont let it stop u proving me wrong 😂 maybe if you have a mint 1200, freshly serviced with 30 weight oil, new plugs, etc (running as efficiently as possible) lets try it!!!!👍

I would love to try and do it.

I've got an old 1200 sitting in an old '61 6V sitting around at my place.

Maybe the fuel ecomony challenge has been set!! 😂

Smiley

A mint 1200 with fuel injection would probably be the go wouldn't it? Smiley

hell yeah, if u have the spare $$$ and time i can be official counter 😁 lets see what the best fuel economy is/can be for an early bug 🤓

The problem is that I don't have the spare money. hahahahaha.
I just bought a buggy that I've been hooking into.

Maybe a fun plan for the next project.

Smiley

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, VW clubs used to organise occasional fuel economy runs - they would have been interesting.

I found a reference to one in the VWC of Victoria's magazine in 1979, when Gary Collis achieved 5.26 L/100 km in a 1200 Beetle. Lesley Collis managed 5.36 ('54 Beetle). Pam Wade got 5.68 (1600 Beetle), while Adrian Brown, Kate Williams and Barry Minster got 6.18 (Passat), 6.22 (1200 Beetle) and 6.56 (1500 Beetle). All pretty good!

I have been wondering about the logistics of these - how could another run be organised? Maybe meet at a large servo. Make sure each entrant has completely filled up (to the first click). Record the odometer. Then go on a cruise somewhere - say 150 km. Finish at another servo, when all entrants again fill completely up (to the first click). Record the fuel purchased and the odometer reading. Litres bought, divided by the km travelled, x 100, = the fuel consumption. Winner gets a trophy. Then go to restaurant, pub etc.

Any volunteers to organise it?

i would be keen on competing! but wouldn't be able to organise!
why don't you organise it phil74??
sounds good fun/ something good to know about your consumption during the GFC!

It seems our stock 1600 twin port Super Beetle gets about 8l/ 100k. I just putt around.

Sounds like a heap of fun!!

Pity I'm so far away.

You'd have to make sure that speedo inaccuracies are accounted for. I know that 30MPH is 60KPH in my Baja with it's big front wheels and dodgy speedo.

Smiley

Thanks for your vote of confidence fellas, but no, I've got enough on my plate now. I just spent last weekend working on the Aug issue of the Club Veedub magazine.

Yes if the speedo was inaccurate due to bigger wheels etc, the odometer figure would be slightly incorrect and it would affect the fuel economy result. There isn't any way around that unless a fuel economy test is done over a defined, known distance, in which case you ignore everyone's speedo. The problem then is if someone makes a wrong turn somewhere and drives slightly further - then they will still have a wrong calculated figure.

For a club run, I would just say bugger it, whatever your speedo says is what we use - after all that's what you use in normal day to day driving anyway.