Navigation Day 2005

On Sunday 23rd October 2005 the JDCHR had it's annual Economy Run. We started at the Hexham Shell. Andrew and I arrived in time to see Allan's XJS leave - and he was the last one - so we found out. The petrol shop attendant didn't notice 6 jaguars fuelling up - so we were a bit worried that we were not in the right place. We filled up anyway and after a couple of phone calls found everyone waiting for us somewhere just after Kurri. We weren't really that late and we had a good excuse - Andrew had to bodgy up one good starter motor from two old dead ones and fit it to the car - so we were lucky to be going at all. We drove down throug

We then drove back up to East Maitland via the freeway to pick up Del and do the all important re-fuelling and calculations. There were some surprising results, with some elated (but sceptical) people and some disappointed (and equally sceptical) people. The top three (Chris, Darren and Andrew) were a bit surprised by their good economies. Although initially a bit doubtful, Andrew is now standing by his 33mpg, even though it is a lot better than the 24mpg we got on the Perth trip at Easter, and he only expected about 28mpg for the economy run.

We all (including Chris) were a bit surprised that Chris's E-type did so well, and spent some of lunch discussing different theories - like air pockets and the efficiency of 6 cyl E-type engines. Darren's fuel economy was very pleasing - almost doubling after some recent work (partly by Gavin King). He can now drive his car around town without "mid-air" refuelling systems being required. Allen wasn't surprised by his V12's performance, but Leyland and Phil were a bit disappointed by their results. The policy of another member checking the fuel level in the cars after re-fuelling meant that all discussions afterwards were focussed on the technical aspects of why fuel economies were better/worse than expected. The day was very warm and naturally no car air conditioners were allowed (stupid fuel economy measures). I even got in trouble for sticking my hand out the window, thereby inducing extra drag. At least I was allowed to have the window down! The trip was generally at 80kph (except the freeway section) and we had little traffic induced delays, so reasonably good economies could be expected. I don't think anyone is actually that competitive, just interested to see how their car compares to what they think it should be and how it stacks up against similar cars/engines.

Lunch was at the newly refurbished East Maitland Hunter River Hotel. We had a lovely lunch in a nice air conditioned pub with a couple of extra members joining us. Thanks to Max for organising another fun competitive event and a good get-together with fellow members.

Nicole Haigh