It would be fair to say that the plans for our first big trip as the now-bigger CompleteCar.ie team adopted somewhat of a fluid-state on the run up to the day itself. Thankfully after years of being car journalists we're all fairly well used to having plans change right up to the last minute without it causing us any real stress. The two things we did have lined up in good time were the most important - the cars. For this trip we would be using two almost identical BMW 3 Series saloons in the form of a 316d and 316i.
It was deemed that our starting point would be a fuel station on the N4, which, in a bizarre coincidence, would be just up the road from Shane's house... In the interest of being as accurate and scientific as possible, we ensured that each car's tyres were correctly inflated according to manufacturer specification and then they were duly brimmed to the neck with fuel. Then, like all good road tips we purchased a breath-taking/artery-clogging (delete as appropriate) array of food from the hot-counter of the aforementioned fuel station. Sadly, neither Parma ham nor Wi-Fi was available - the well-known staple diet of the motoring journalist.
Setting off, it was agreed that we wouldn't be hypermiling (the art of driving incredibly economically yet wholly impractically for the real world), but would of course be adhering to all the rules of the road, especially speed limits. The first leg of our trip would take us south towards Waterford before then heading west to Cork. This route avoided a fair degree of motorway, giving us a chance to drive the cars over a greater variety of roads in order to gain more realistic fuel consumption figures. Once into Cork our convoy became separated by some heavy local traffic and while sitting on the off-ramp towards Limerick we did spot the other car carry on past us opting to take an alternative route. Naturally the little racer in all of us then began to ponder who would get to the Limerick rest-stop first.
Being that time of year, dusk began to fall as we motored towards Limerick and thankfully the poor weather had blown westwards leaving us with drying roads. Passing through the Limerick Tunnel the roads were far emptier heading towards Galway meaning that we were making good time. We were just over halfway through our journey so in order to celebrate we paid a visit to the local fast food establishment. Naturally we would of course had preferred some more upmarket fine dining, but we did have a lot of work still to do. Following another round of driver changes we set off once more on the road that would in time lead us back to Dublin.
Leaving fuel-efficient engines and other vehicle dynamics aside, we all agreed that the seats in the BMWs were rather good considering how little some of the CompleteCar.ie team members complained. As the glow of Dublin loomed in the distance we all became slightly excited to be reaching the finish line. Excited to be finally done and excited to see just how much of a difference there actually was between the two cars. We had a feeling that the difference may be smaller than first expected.
Pulling into the fuel station directly opposite the one we set off from many hours earlier, we refuelled the cars (part of the science stuff according to Shane) and congratulate ourselves on not having had any arguments or throwing punches despite being in close quarters for an entire day. Science aside, there is a lot to be said for just getting some friends together and heading off on a road trip. If you've not done it in a while, change that!
2013 road trip part two: winter driving