Patience, steady foot on the gas key to fuel efficiency

Imanuddin The Jakarta Post Lido, Sukabumi

It was not about how vigorously you could rev up your car's engine to exceed the speed limit and reach the finish line ahead of the rest.

Nor was it about controlling or pumping up adrenaline to overcome your fears and win a tight race.

It also had nothing to do with whether the you were skilled enought to take a turn at full speed.

And it was definitely not about how sophisticated and aerodynamic your car is so that it can run as fast and as smooth as a jet plane.

Instead, it was about controlling "emotions", remaining patient and maintaining the car's speed to avoid unnecessary fuel consumption.

With most car manufacturers offering now the latest technology in engines to provide low-fuel consumption cars, Japan's Honda has come out with a compact i-series 1,500 cc engine known as the i-DSI, which stands for Intelligent Dual and Sequential Ignition.

With the system, the engine is capable of producing a torque of 13.1 kilogram per meter at the low engine rotation of 2,700 rotations per minute (rpm), thus allowing a driver to get ideal power with low engine rotation and with less fuel consumption.

This i-DSI system, applied in the newly launched New Honda City, was tested during the recent All New Honda City Eco- Challenge tour to Lido recreational site in Lido, Bogor.

The route to Lido, a combination of highways and intercity roads, was not a smooth one.

Jagorawi, the country's oldest toll road, did not guarantee unhindered traffic as it was packed with weekend travelers seeking an escape to the higher grounds of Puncak, Bandung or Sukabumi in West Java.

Another problem was the public minivans jamming the road after the exit gate of the Ciawi toll road, as well as intercity buses crowding the intersection connecting Ciawi and Sukabumi as well as Ciawi and Puncak.

Such obstacles usually prompt frustrated drivers to come down hard on the gas pedal whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Technically speaking, such a maneuver will prompt greater fuel consumption.

Sudden acceleration will have a similar effect.

The above technical theories proved correct for the winners of the fuel-efficiency contest.

Bibid, a driver for the Republika daily team which won the PDA (personal digital assistance) for the first prize winner category for media participants, confirmed the theories.

"I was always eager to speed up along the way to Lido, but my navigator, who happens to be my younger brother, told me not to do so," the journalist said.

"'If you really don't want to win the PDA, I do, so please be slow always'," he quoted his brother as saying.

Elin Ngadimin, the winner in the customers' category for automatic transmission with a record of 1.6 liters of fuel for the 75-kilometer race, or 1 liter consumption of fuel for 46.38 kilometers, agreed with Bibid that maintaining a constant speed was important.

Reaching the finish line at the Lido Lake Resort in one hour 25 minutes and 44 seconds, Elin said she always tried to maintain the same speed of below 100 kilometers per hour along the roads and hardly ever overtook vehicles in front, except if they stopped.

Above all the technical and technological aspects, the winners' experience prove the key factor to low fuel consumption was not the car and its technology, but the attitude of the person behind the steering wheel.