Bolt is its name, frugal is its game
Slipstreaming the Bolt an unnecessary exercise, as this Tata’s wallet-friendly. TATA PROVES ITS METTLE ON ADVENTUROUS DRIVE FROM PRETORIA TO THE CAPE
The challenge was to drive 2 100km on 120 litres of petrol, a task I knew the little Tata Bolt was easily capable of. This translates into 17.5km off every litre of fuel. I had beaten that without trying too hard at the vehicle’s launch earlier this year. The distance is that from Beitbridge to Cape Agulhas, pretty much the north of South Africa to very much the south.
The Bolt quaintly displays average fuel consumption in kilometres per litre rather than the more conventional litres per hundred kilometres, so all one needed to do was keep that number above 17.5 and you were pretty much the amount the Tata Bolt had to drive on only 120 litres of petrol home and dry. The first leg was from Beitbridge to Pretoria for the overnight stop and appeared uneventful, my driving partner, Justin Jacobs, and I finished with 20.1km per litre as the day’s average. We had been careful and allowed speed to dwindle on the hills, but had managed to keep up with prevailing traffic.
There are a couple of ways to reduce fuel consumption legitimately, and the one I used was what my dear old father, the Scottish accountant, referred to as “eggshelling”. Simply put, one drives as if there were an eggshell between the accelerator and the sole of your shoe, trying not to break the shell. Basically, gentle throttle inputs. Try not to accelerate on hills and gain speed rather when gravity is your friend. Very importantly, anticipate, so the minimum energy is dissipated as heat by way of the brakes. That’s about it really, the Bolt is frugal without the need for tricks like dangerous slipstreaming and freewheeling down passes.
But by that evening, we discovered that the event had somehow morphed into a full-blown fuel economy run complete with prizes at the end. Had I known I would have stayed home. I hate fuel economy runs on many levels. If nothing else, the driving becomes agonising. With no time limits, set drivers were free to drive as slowly as they pleased – and some did. Also drivers often resort to driving practices that are both dangerous and inconsiderate to other road users. If you want to drive like that, book Gerotek and do it in a controlled environment. Mostly though, it just produces figures that are of no use to you the reader as the driving is so contrived.
However, Justin is more patient than I am. Despite being out of the “competition” as we had not returned the 23km/l and better figures of some of the other cars, he would prove a point. We finished the day after averaging 23.6km/l. That is a remarkable 4.2l/100km. The Tata Bolt can get by on very little.
Fortunately, the Bolt is a comfortable vehicle because we were clearly going to be spending a lot of time in it. We were pretty much
2 100km
By the middle of day three we were so far ahead of the 120-litre target set as the challenge that we could drive pretty much as we pleased.
bound by the slowest common denominator, as that is what determined when all the refuelling and recording would take place. We could choose between waiting at an Ultra City, hoping not to be beaten up by a truck driver one of the clearly marked cars had been annoying for the past 3 hours, or being in the car. We chose being in the car. It had a decent sound system, and there are some wonderfully quaint radio stations in South Africa’s platteland that took us into a world where there were no elections, no riots and no traffic jams.
By the middle of day three, we were so far ahead of the 120-litre target set as the challenge that we could drive pretty much as we pleased. While the Scottish Accountant had raised me never to waste fuel, he also had taught me that an extra night on the road spending hundreds of rand on accommodation to save tens of rands in fuel was definitional insanity. But the accommodation was already paid for by Tata, so the next best thing to do was enjoy it and get there early. While still averaging around 5l/100km we were on our third beer, overlooking a beautiful dam complete with hippos, by the time the others arrived. The Bolt may be nice, but no car is that nice.
The final day we left at a leisurely, relatively, 7am and had caught the group that had left while it was still dark by the first fuel stop. We lingered for coffee while the competitive group chugged on, which saw us get lost and do about 100km extra.
More significantly we now needed to make up serious time. Now we just drove as quickly as we could without being silly. This meant enjoying to the full two of the best mountain passes in the country on the way to Aghulas, thank goodness we had all that fuel spare.
To add to the time problem, we encountered three Stop/Go controls due to roadworks. They were leisurely affairs, so much so that at one, I was asked to deliver an empty 2-litre cooldrink bottle when we arrived at the control point on the other side. The reason? That way the other controller would know we were the last car. When the radio is broken, they “maak n plan” in the Cape.
Despite all this, we still arrived at Cape Agulhas first having averaged about 6.9l/100km for that leg. Pretty good when you take the passes into account.
We had averaged 5.46l/100km for the entire trip according to my records. And despite the unplanned detour of nearly 100km, had used a touch over 115 litres of petrol. Challenge accomplished.
All four cars beat the challenge, with the “winning” car arriving having used just more than 93 litres of fuel, approximately 12 litres less than us. This translates to about R150.
One hundred and fifty rand for all that hassle and eight hours extra driving? I would have thought even motoring journalists’ time was worth more than that.
My recommendation is that you just drive your Tata Bolt decently, it is economical by design.