Prius Challenge Motueka - who is the greenest local?
The second leg of the Prius Challenge has well and truly begun in sunny Motueka with our new salesman Michiel Overweel over seeing the whole thing very well (see what we did there.....)
The Motueka stage of the Prius Challenge will take place over June with the winner announced on our Facebook page 9am July 2nd. Remember what is up for grabs here - the winner of this stage of the Prius Challenge will win the Prius C fully fuelled up, their's for a week to go where ever they wish.
Michiel has just moved here with his wife and daughter from Amsterdam in The Netherlands, and is keen to meet as many locals as he can. Coming from central Europe where hybrid cars are a hot topic and everyone is getting in on the act, Michiel is as keen as mustard to jump into the Prius Challenge and find out just who is Motueka's greenest driver.
We have set a new course for the challenge and have already done a couple of laps to set some benchmark times. We think that it will be very achievable to post a sub 3.0L/100Km fuel consumption rating over the 12.5km course, but time will tell.
Fun day at Mt Riley for our offroad winners
On Sunday we took the winners from our Westport Challenge Video Showcase evening over to Mt Riley in Marlborough for some real off road experience courtesy of the Bowater Toyota Extreme Off Road Team.
The day dawned another perfect Nelson winters stunner, with a blue sky beckoning. We headed off to Havelock and The Slip Inn for brunch then over to the extensive 4X4 Tracks on Mike Holme's Mt Riley property.
- The winners from the Westport Challenge evening: Heinz Schwarze, Jayne Collier & Ray Williamson
- On the way to the Mt Riley Off Road tracks we stopped off for brunch in Havelock at The Slip Inn. Very nice!
- The tracks they have got on this property are immense, well thought out and very challenging
- Guy Griffiths in his heavily modified Landcruiser
- This is one of those moments best seen and heard live - it is deceptively steep
- At the top of the previous bank climb
- These moguls are industrial.
- This is the view during one of the bank climbs - almost vertical!
- and ther way down a bank drop - hard to keep it all together & take a photo
- The river bed runs are tons of fun
- don't try this at home....... slick with liquid mud this climb was very fast & intense
- Wet, slippery and steep
- The forest bashing sections were a lot of fun, bouncing off trees to corner is something you have to try at least once
- more bank climbs before we got to the really serious tracks
- Guy Griffiths from the Bowater Toyota Off Road Team - can you tell he quite likes all of this!
- These drops are seriously serious - you can't see what is coming until you are half way down
- Ray Williamson & Heinz Schwarze waiting for their turns and enjoying the sunshine
- To say these are controlled slides is suchj an understatement - the skill is unbelievable
- Check out the gradient, and then you hit the bottom
- Good veiw of the suspension
- Good view of what some of the track was like, at speed!
- Heinz came prepared with his Extreme Nalder Jacket - he was expecting m.u.d.
- These short wheelbase trucks seem to be the order of the day, if you look closely this one has a smashed windscreen from rolling over
- more fun in the stream
- which gets even more fun with more speed
- Driving through the forest between courses was a chance to relax again.
- because some of the courses were quite hairy.....
- Jayne & BMG media manager David relaxing on the go anywhere FJ Cruiser we bought over for the day
- Ray enjoyed his adventure and loved the FJ Cruiser
- Back at base, the FJ is a little dirtier than when we left.
The whole day was an amazing adventure for us all, with the intense video footage still to come!
Return of the Honda Civic Hatch
The first five-door Civic available on the New Zealand market since the demise of the remarkably spacious 2001-2006 model is to enter showrooms in July.
This is good news, as although we're very much a hatch-oriented market, Honda's recent reliance on Asian sourcing for Civics meant that all we could get were sedans for some years, and when you look at the dwindling numbers in terms of four-door sales in the C-segment, Honda will be celebrating the Euro Civic five-door's arrival too.
New Zealand has missed out on a full generation of five-door Civics, although across the Tasman a limited number were made available from the source in Swindon, England.
The all-new ninth-generation Civic five-door reached European showrooms in late 2011 and it too is sourced from Swindon, where the line-up consists of 1.4 and 1.8 i-VTEC petrol-powered models and a 2.2 i-DTEC diesel, with an all-new 1.6-litre i-DTEC diesel entering the European market by the end of the year.
For the Australian and New Zealand markets, the new Euro Honda five-door will have VTi and VTi-L levels of specification, with both cars using the 1.8 i-VTEC petrol power unit, which delivers maximum power of 104kW at 6500rpm and 174Nm of torque at 4300rpm. It will drive through a six-speed manual or five-speed automatic transmission choice.
Who is our greenest driver?
Photo: MARTIN DE RUYTER/FAIRFAX NZ: David Eagle of the Bowater Motor Group drives a 2012 Toyota Prius Hybrid car that is being used in the Prius Challenge in Nelson and Motueka.
Article from The Nelson Mail 06/06/12.
Here's a tip for fuel efficiency: don't chat so much while driving that you miss your turn.
That's the mistake Nelson Mail chief photographer Martin de Ruyter made while taking the Prius Challenge in Nelson.
This week the challenge course is in Motueka and next month it will be back in Nelson for a corporate challenge for companies to vie to be the greenest business.
Nelson eco-builder Nick Marer, from the Little Pig Building Company, won the Nelson challenge, topping 50 other drivers with his eco-score of 2.5 litres per 100km fuel economy over the 7.5km course which takes in the hill up and over Russell St, the highway along Queen Elizabeth Drive and back through town.
More Articles ...
- Honda CRZ verses the city
- We have a winner in the Nelson Prius Challenge
- Nick Marer shows us 2.5L/100km fuel efficiency in the Prius C
- How to build an electric car; if you are mad!
- The Prius Challenge is coming to Motueka
- This weeks leaderboard's top ten is getting close
- The Little Pig builds a solid Prius Challenge
- Amazing 2012 Corolla Specials save you thousands
- Simon from The Nelson Mail has some news for us!
- The Prius Challenge Leader board - can you do better?
