Hi..
Been to Surrey and Watford today, left at 11am, in quite heavy saturday traffic, averaged about 90mph all the way down the M40 and made good progress between patches of traffic. Stuck £45 in an empty tank and it showed just over half and 266 miles on the range.

On arriving to surrey i had 145 showing on the range, and the needle above a quarter, 21mpg!! Another thrash through traffic, not being very economical and arrived in watford showing just a tad over empty on the needle, range 80 and 20.5mpg on the computer.

Because of this foolish behaviour, i thought it would be best to make use of this long continuous run at night (left at 11:50am after visiting many relatives) and i controlled myself very well and drove home on cruise at 70mph!! first time ever, and i managed to actually do the 103 miles journey while the computer was only showing 75 on the range.. the distance left came below the range on the dash at around 45 miles, and there were plenty of service stations left in case i didn't calculate it right..

On my return into the midlands, after a very painful and irritating drive on an almost empty road in the middle of the night, i got in at 1:30am showing the above reading, with nothing left on the tank, 15 miles showing on reading and 32.4 MPG!! (see above pic, sorry for its blurriness, was driving at the time, and this was best shot my sis could get leaning over and zooming through my arms and steering wheel spokes!) my best ever!! had struggled to get it passed 24mpg ever before. Guess it must be my driving style after all!

On the £45 diesel, managed to get out roughly 280 miles. Filled up near my home, just in case it doesn't start tommorow.

Not bad considering in Guildford, whilst showing my brother in law the RRS, he took me to the top of the hill up there to where we took this shot (See below) and he made me cruise round guildford quite a bit, making me demo how much quick progress it could make! obviously still being in the honey moon period of owning the car, i had to oblige! This period runs out as soon as every person i know has seen the car, and has had a good blast as a passenger in it! Hence meaning this tank of fuel took some bashing down the motorway as well as in guildford.

Saw an approximate 8 RRS's all going in the other direction, mostly black SC models, look stunning!! I even had an X5 3.0d SE try to drop it and leave me, but i was waiting for him to do so, and already had command shift in 4 ready to ride the torque and blast him, worked a treat and i got a respectful glance as i shot past! have to get the RRS rep up as much as possible, as well as advertising the RRSport sticker to as many people as possible! hehe.. good day motoring today.. (doing my bit to keep demand & residuals high!)
My family all felt the RRS was a comfortable cruiser, and it felt even smoother then the 7 on the return somewhat smoother run..

kam100 - nice view of Guildford cathedral - did you know they filmed some of The Omen film there? (or some film like that) Shame I didn't know you were in town I could have taken you to a couple of good off road sites that I have recently been on. As for MPG on a trip from Guildford to the City of London and back I clocked up 32mpg with a top of 38mpg from driving on the A3 only. I did drive like a OAP though to achieve this!

Regards 2005 Zambezi TDV6 - Gone but not forgotten
2009 Alaska TDV8 - Gone and much missed.



WINNER - 2009 �Idler Of The Year� Award
Runner Up - 2009 �Just Doing What It�s Designed To Do� Award


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VA, yes my brother in law also told me that about the film Omen being filmed there, seems to be a well known local fact..

Trip was quite sudden and off the cuff, will definitely send you a PM when im gonna be in town next time, Guildford is quite hilly and i can imagine its got some good trails and spots for 4x4ing..

That MPG is impressive! i reckon we're gonna have a bit of a comp on our hands to see how much MPG people can register.. but no cheating, resetting your clock and taking snaps at silly readings of like 100mpg or the like!

Kam, I'll report back in 10 days time, but I hope to better that when I do my Stirling - Southampton run, you've given me something to aim for although I am get 27.7now in local driving between home and town and back so 32.5 shouls be achievable! I could get 31.7 on the motorway with the TD6 RR. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Tim , thats sounds like very impressive town driving MPG . What mileage have you done ?

Driving back to Pasadena (California, USA) today from a weekend in Palm Springs, about 120 miles of freeway each way, I filled up my HSE (4.4 liter). The "Distance To Empty" display showed a range of 504 miles when I started the engine! By the time I pulled away from the gas station and got back to the freeway on-ramp that range had dropped to 480, and never got back above 500... I wish I had immortalized such eventful moment with a picture, too.

Long stretches of freeway were nearly empty and I was briefly able to speed up to just above 120 mph before my wife started screaming obscenities. The car remains as steady as a rock at that speed, and quiet. Very impressive. 

Yep i can also bear witness to that.
At approx 110mph the diesel is as sure footed and as strong as when doing 60! Very impressive indeed.

I have another observation also, when speeding up behind most cars, with the silver grill and bright bi-xenon lights, they tend to move and allow you room to pass in general, but when they don't (which you always get nearer london in my experience) a little encouragement using a flash from the beams or the right indicator usually does the trick...
However there was this Rover 400 driving around 60mph and swerving all over the place, i gave him a few flashes as i approached, and he didn't even flinch, to which i got slightly annoyed and gave him some more, i need to realise that the lights on the RRS are very unusually bright, and being at quite a high level to other cars mean they are in direct line to the drivers eyes, so on repeating my impatient light flashing, i think i blinded the driver to such a degree that he began trying to move out of my way at all costs, which was slightly dangerous..
Felt really bad afterwards, and has made me realise what could have happened due to my actions, and i'l refrain from doing this again i think! be warned, the lights on the RRS are very dazzling to most drivers who don't have the auto dimming rear view mirrors, so mostly all cars!

Tim i must stress that i only achieved 32.4MPG driving like a complete pensioner and didn't have my tunit box installed at the time. I think if i kept up more of a lively pace i would have managed only around 25mpg, which in my book is still respectable for a car this size. I still think driving at 70mph on cruise is more dangerous then driving faster as there is real risk of nodding off!

Kam, I think that 32 should be perfectly achievable with the TDv6 on my trip. I usually pick up the M9 at Stirling immediately after filling to the brim and cruise gently up to 69-71mph on the cruise control (no heavy right foot) and then sit there as much as possible, avoiding sudden acceleration and braking. It might be pensioner driving - I prefer miserly driving!, but even with the TD6 I was able to achieve into the low 30's mpg on those long trips.
The best average mpg I have ever seen on the average display was 44.5mpg when I filled up at a filling station on the top ove a hill and was able to leave it on a training throttle the first 10 miles after fillup were either on the level or running down a shallow gradient!

Regarding the reset of the trip computer after refueling - the reason for the distance to go suddenly dropping is that the average speed has become infinity so it gives an unrealistic fuel consumption. As soon as you move off the odo starts to register distance and record elapsed time. If you leave the computer display on ave MPG (instead of range to go) you will see that after moving off the mpg goes from a row of bars to something like 5.6 then 9.8 then 11.3, averaging out the consumption as the distance gone increases. After a couple of miles you will notice that the average mpg will have stablised - now you should look at the range remaining.

Here's an interesting observation I have made from my trips from Scotland to Southampton - going south, heading into the prevailing wind I always get much better MPG compared to driving north with the wind behind me.......... the only thing that I can think of that causes this is that despite having to climb up to the height of Shap summit all the way from Stirling (about 2600ft climb over 130 miles, the rest of the trip from there south is downhill (2600ft decent over 375 miles)! Strange but tue! Coming north the mpg is always 2-3mpg less than going south yet my driving technique is no different. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

kam100 wrote:

Nice view over Guildford, kam... it looks some distance away - where was it that you took the photo from, do you know?

Cheers
Steve 

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

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Im afraid i don't know to be honest..
My brother in law was saying, left right left etc.. so i wasn't looking at road names or anything.. It was near the town centre, as on our descent back down the hill we could see down the high street pedestrianised area. The reason we came up was to have a go in the RRS up the gravel track, but it has now been tarmac'd so we drove to the top, took a pic off my phone, and came back down, the road was a dead end, with some kind of horticultural training school at the end of it..

The college might be Merrist Wood College Worplesdon, Guildford 2005 Zambezi TDV6 - Gone but not forgotten
2009 Alaska TDV8 - Gone and much missed.



WINNER - 2009 �Idler Of The Year� Award
Runner Up - 2009 �Just Doing What It�s Designed To Do� Award


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Ah, yes... makes sense. Good spot!  

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

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shmoogle

It'll only be a matter of time till our paths cross - do you have a RRSport.co.uk sticker on your RRS and what colour is your car? 2005 Zambezi TDV6 - Gone but not forgotten
2009 Alaska TDV8 - Gone and much missed.



WINNER - 2009 �Idler Of The Year� Award
Runner Up - 2009 �Just Doing What It�s Designed To Do� Award


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Not right now but I will do in the next few days - I've just paid Martin for an external one that will go on my rear windscreen. As it says below, it's a black HSE with the SC grille & vents. I don't actually live in Guildford (about 20 mins further down the A3) but it's the nearest "big shops" if I can't get what I want in Farnham. 

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

Like it here? Then Donate to RRSPORT!!

Nice full speed run over the Hogs Back! 2005 Zambezi TDV6 - Gone but not forgotten
2009 Alaska TDV8 - Gone and much missed.



WINNER - 2009 �Idler Of The Year� Award
Runner Up - 2009 �Just Doing What It�s Designed To Do� Award


DO NOT CLICK HERE!