world_record_attempt

The Guinness World Record for Best Fuel Economy through 48-Continguous United States of America was set by the Australian team of John and Helen Taylor at 58.82 miles per gallon in September of 2008. 

The All-American Team attempting to break this World Record consists of Wayne Gerdes, Founder of CleanMPG.com (Chicago, IL), Justin Fons, co-founder of Milwaukee Hybrid Group (Milwaukee, WI), and Jennie Chen, founder of AustinDriveClean.com (Austin, TX).  Wayne Gerdes coined the term “Hypermiling” in 2004, and has been dedicated to teaching others how to improve fuel economy and lower emissions in whatever they own and drive.  The Oxford Dictionary recently declared “hypermiling” as the 2008 Word of the Year.  Justin Fons is the World‘s youngest top-ranked hypermiler.  He’s part of a winning team the Insight Marathon driving a stock 2001 Honda Insight to a world record of 2,254.4 miles on a single tank of fuel.  This comes to 164 miles per gallon.  Jennie Chen was victorious in the Houston’s KPRC Honda CRV Challenge achieving 42.5 miles per gallon in a sports utility vehicle.  Jennie created Austin Drive Clean to promote more efficient fuel economy and energy conservation awareness.

The purpose for taking this attempt is to show others what a Honda Civic Hybrid is capable of achieving on real world condition through American cities and towns.  The Honda Civic Hybrid is an Advanced Technology-Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (ATPZEV) which means it rated as one of the cleanest gasoline powered vehicle in the world.  This attempt will also increase awareness of hybrid vehicles and fuel efficient driving to help keep the world Green.

The team finished in needles California with 68.54 miles per gallon on Dec. 2, 2008.

• Attempt Article
• From the road – Day 4 article
• From the road – Day 6 article
• From the road – Day 9 article
• They broke the record!
• Trip Stop Log
• 48-State Tracking Log
• Photos
• Videos

Per Guinness rules, we took photographs of every state welcome sign (as well as video), had witnesses at our gas station fill ups to verify the odometer, verify intact seal from previous fill-up, and to seal the tank (video coming soon), and GPS (or as some call the Jennie tracker) tracking on my iphone.