Day 1 the green diet

The Eco-friendly Green Challenge diet, guaranteed to make you sweat, and hopefully drop a few kilos.

First, take a suitable vehicle – in this case Hyundai’s impressive Santa Fe, a mid-sized soft roader which has been revamped and which goes on sale next week.

We’re driving the Santa Fe in this year’s 3000km challenge from Darwin to Adelaide in a real-world test of fuel consumption.

But being a challenge, my co-driver and fellow Carsguide writer Chris Riley decided to get smart. And it turns out all the other drivers, seeking an edge, thought the same. Why not save fuel by turning off the vehicle’s air conditioning?

Well all know air conditioning robs a vehicle of power and therefore adds to daily running costs. It can’t be too hard to drive with it switched off and the windows up … right?

Wrong. Today’s leg from Darwin to Katherine was 376km and tomorrow we do double the distance from Katherine to Tennant Creek is another 668km.

Now, picture a 4WD wagon, no air conditioning, windows up, travelling at 80km/h to save fuel as the temperature sizzles from 37 to 40 deg C. Liken it to sitting in a confined but comfortable space with a hot air dryer going full blast in your face for five hours and you get the picture. You sweat in this mobile sauna.

Never mind trying to drive and dodge wandering cattle on the Stuart Highway.

Still, a truckload of bottled water, a simply divine ice-cream at our only stop at the Hayes Creek roadhouse and several hours of music from the Angels made it bearable.

We made it to Katherine with just two minutes to spare on the time clock otherwise we would have been penalised for being late . And how well did the Santa Fe do? At the moment that’s up for debate.

By our reckoning we are in the top six in the field, but like all good rallies there are questions over the first day’s results which saw HSV’s V8 Maloo record a remarkable 65 per cent gain in fuel efficiency, running at just 5.34 litres per 100km. That’s from a ute with an official combined fuel figure of 15.1.

Unimpressed mutterings at day’s end about that result.

The cars which did impress the field were the Skoda Superb (20 per cent gain) and Ford’s XR6 Falcon (37 per cent).

And James Stanford did well to even get to Katherine on a postie bike fueled by methylated spirits and alcohol.

For the record, the two Santa Fes – the other being driven by rally veteran Ed Ordynski and motoring guru John Cadogan – averaged an affordable 5.8 and 5.9l/100km, which is about 12 per cent below the official fuel consumption guide. And yes, Ed’s team had the air conditioning off as well.

We would have done better had we not stopped at nearly all of Darwin’s traffic lights. A red light is a cruel thing to face when you are trying to be smooth.

The biggest winner for the day was the all-electric Tesla roadster, the $160,000 silent rocket that drew crowds. Owner Simon Hackett says he’s getting 400km between recharges – being done from a portable generator on the back of a truck.