Real results
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It was good to read Tim Blakemore's description (CM 25 June-1 July) of our EC11.380 4x2 Fuel Duel vehicle as an "impressive benchmark" when it returned 9.14mpg at the BTAC fuel trials—almost lmpg better than the other marques pictured in the article.
What is surprising is that your technical editor Toby Clark felt it necessary to qualify this success by referring to your on-road test (from August 1997) where a figure of 8.47mpg was returned.
We issue regular updates of our Fuel Duel results to CM and would have thought these results were also worth a reference as new results are added constantly and are based on more than 550 Fuel Duels, each result signed off by the operator concerned. Overall average: ERF 9.26mpg (BTAC 914). Competitor average: 826mpg Mercedes 7.63 (BTAC 7.49) Volvo 7.84 (BTAC 8.15) Scania 8.29 (BTAC 8.15) Matthew V Thompson, ERF, Sandhach, Cheshire.
While we appreciate that your BTAC and Fuel Duel results appear impressive, all fuel consumption figures vary according to the test method. We thought that CM readers would like to be reminded of our figure— achieved at 38 tonnes, round a familiar route which has been a benchmark for several decades. As far as we are concerned, this is a realistic result—Technical Editor.