CENTO MIGLIA ECONOMY RUN, Sunday 27th May

After two weeks of drizzly grey weather, it was a nice change to see the sun and enjoy a day out driving some lovely scenic roads. Ten teams in a range of classic and modern vehicles filled up with fuel at the Warragul Shell servo before heading off down the freeway to Nilma and then northwards to Rokeby and Jindivick; it was then on to Labertouche before turning west onto the Princess Freeway at Longwarry North. Kevin Riley was leading the way by a country mile in the big supercharged Merc, but things turns awry down around Bales where an unexpected road closure had teams searching for alternative routes. Thankfully, everyone eventually made it to Tooradin for a welcome morning tea break at this halfway point in the run. The second half of the event was navigationally much more straight forward than the first half, which must have been a relief to our couple of one-man teams. Drivers headed south-east along the South Gippsland Highway to Lang Lang where they turned on to McDonalds Track which weaves its way through the hills to Nyora. It was then down to Loch and a run along the ridge of the green undulating hills towards the coast and our destination at Wonthaggi.

All the vehicles were refuelled at the Wonthaggi BP and their fuel usage recorded. Teams then retired to nearby Guide Park for lunch whilst your correspondent calculated their fuel economy and placings within various classes (see below).

Mal and Celia Collins achieved outstanding economy in their classic Mini to win the event outright. Mal?s Mini benefits from a large single SU carburettor and an unusually tall final drive ratio. He also drives slowly at low rpm, but even so, it would probably take a hybrid vehicle to better their 3.42 L/100km. At the other end of the scale, Geoff and Heather Miller in the classic V8 Mustang took out the Stone Motherless Last trophy with 13.10 L/100km. It was a close-run thing with Kevin Riley?s V8 Merc being the early favourite and expected to take out this coveted trophy; but Kevin was obviously taking it easy!

An outstanding result was achieved by Alan Humphreys in the new Subaru BRZ. Although he had to chase the pack down after refuelling at the start after everyone had left, he drove sensibly and returned 5.5L/100km. Ron and Trish Brooks left their thirsty twin-turbo V8 Cobra and home this year electing to drive the big 5-series diesel Bimmer which returned a very creditable 6.05 L/100km.

It was a surprise to see Allan and Lorraine Richards arrive in their Cooper S around lunchtime, a shame that they were unable to participate in the competition aspect, but it was nice of them to join us at the finish. The results were announced over lunch and trophies awarded to the class winners, it was then time to say our goodbyes and head for home. Kevin and I headed off together to explore some backroads; we stopped at Kongwak for a photo opportunity at a nicely restored Mobil Garage before heading to Poowong East and Hallora via Korumburra. It had been a long day, but thank you to all who participated and congratulations to our winners.

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