MOTORING NEWS - The British Motor Museum was delighted to accept a recent donation from Honda: the British-built Honda Civic Tourer 1,6 i-DTEC that holds the Guinness World Records title for fuel efficiency. Honda has been a major manufacturer in the UK for 25 years, building and engineering cars at its Swindon factory.
The car was presented to the museum by Fergal McGrath and Julian Warren of Honda's European research and development team. They were the two men who were behind the wheel during the world record attempt.
Based on rigorous Guinness World Records guidelines, the Civic was awarded the official title of "Lowest fuel consumption in all 24 contiguous EU countries", which was calculated across an entire 13 498km - journey.
The rules stated that all 24 EU countries had to be visited and the same two drivers had to be in the car for the whole journey. This meant Fergal and Julian had to drive a daily average of 600 kilometres, sharing a minimum of
7,5 hours behind the wheel each day. The car started its epic trip in Aalst, Belgium on Monday 1 June 2015, navigating around the continent in a clockwise direction, arriving back in Belgium on 25 June 2015.
The Honda averaged an incredible 2,82 litres per 100km, beating the Civic's official efficiency figure by more than 25%. The car stopped just nine times to refuel and travel across the 24 countries. During the trip each tank of fuel lasted roughly 1 500km.
Fergal commented: "Julian and I are extremely proud of the Honda Civic Tourer and embraced all the challenges that came with setting the Guinness World Records title in 2015. It is fantastic that this car will now be on display in the British Motor Museum and it is a testament to the hard work of the Honda team involved."
The Honda Civic (left) and the Honda Prelude which was given to British Leyland's chief, Sir Michael Edwardes, from Honda boss Kiyashi Kawashima in 1979. Both will now be on display in the Collections Centre.
The Honda Civic Tourer will form part of the museum's collection of over 300 cars in the Collections Centre. It joins one other Honda - a Prelude that was a gift to British Leyland's chief, Sir Michael Edwardes, from Honda boss Kiyashi Kawashima when the two companies signed their partnership agreement in 1979.
For more information about the museum and its collections, visit www.britishmotormusuem.co.uk.
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