Mercedes Goes from Africa to the U.K. on One Tank of Fuel
One of the coolest things to do is go on a road trip. You get to see some great sites like national monuments, nature, animals, weird truck stop bathrooms, and a host of other awesome sights, but how do you make a road trip even cooler? Set an impossible, or at least only theoretical goal for yourself. That’s exactly what British journalist Andrew Frankel and his mate did.
The pair took a standard E300 BlueTec Hybrid Mercedes, fitted with the optional 21-gallon fuel tank, a $170 option in the UK, and then traversed from Tangier in Morocco to the U.K. at Goodwood on a single tank of fuel. The duo went through four time zones, and a total of four countries, and it only took 27 hours to make the trek. The team ended at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with still an indicated 100-mile range left in the tank. That works out to be an average of 61.2 mpg, and a total range of 1,300 miles.
Obviously this is no AMG with a million horsepower to suck down the gas. The BlueTec Hybrid is powered by a 204-hp diesel engine, and the 27-hp electric motor boasts a modest 184 lb-ft of torque. Gas and electric power combined, those numbers climb to 231 hp and 368 lb-ft of torque. What makes this even crazier to contemplate is that the route the team chose wasn’t the most direct route, which could have brought them home sooner. We don’t have the E300 BlueTec in the States at the moment, but we definitely should. You could almost traverse the entire distance between the East Coast and the West Coast on two tanks of fuel. Mercedes, could you please bring this here?