Toyota Eco Challenge, or Prius on nature
I don't usually play drop rallies because not only do I have a heavy leg, but in this case weight is always of great importance. Toyota's invitation, however, included a consolation prize for everyone in the form of a relaxing day on a picturesque lake in Masuria, so I didn't hesitate for long. The fire is burning to hell - choose a tan!
We set off from Toyota Headquarters at Konstruktorska in Warsaw. I didn't like the first stage because it's typical jumping between street lights or crawling in traffic. On the other hand, this is the natural environment of these cars. That is why they have an electric motor that works independently at low speeds and energy recovery systems for braking.
When we start off, the car uses the electric motor, at least until we press the accelerator pedal hard enough to accelerate the car to dynamic acceleration until we exceed the speed of 50 km/h (in practice, the internal combustion engine turns on when the speedometer was a few more kilometers to fifty), and finally, as long as we have enough energy in the batteries. In general, the last situation surprised me the most, since, according to the testimony, we often had almost half-discharged batteries, and the car did not want to turn on the electric drive mode. The disadvantage of this generation of Prius is that it can only travel two kilometers on a single electric motor. The only way to get out of the city with an electric drive is in the event of a long descent from the famous hill in San Francisco, after which Steve McQueen was chasing thugs in the movie Bullitt. Either way, California is currently the best market for hybrids because combustion restriction standards favor this type of vehicle.
However, Warsaw itself was only a small part of the route, with a length of just over 200 km. We traveled mainly along the road number 7 to the north to get to Dorotovo via Plonsk, Mlawa and Olsztynek. However, this time it was not only about the route - time limits were set. We had 2 hours 50 minutes on the road. There were also “student quarters of an hour”, and fines were levied for attending more than 15 minutes. In general, after crawling out in Warsaw, we had to keep close to the speed of 100 km/h in order to have any chance to hold on for three hours, especially since we still had to repair the road at the end of the route with narrowing and sections with variable traffic . My partner was Wojciech Majewski, a TV journalist who knows how to drive fast. We have tried to keep the ride smooth to reduce the time of the engine at high speeds. Outside the built-up area, the drive of the Prius is based on an internal combustion engine - a gasoline unit with a capacity of 99 hp. and a maximum torque of 142 Nm. An eighty-horsepower electric motor helps him in acceleration, and together the two units form a unit with a capacity of 136 hp. According to factory data, this allows a top speed of 180 km/h and a 100-10,4 mph time of 3,9 seconds. The last important number in the technical data series is the average fuel consumption of 100 l/XNUMX km. We landed in Dorotovo with the first crew, barely meeting the allotted time. However, we missed the factory combustion a bit.
On the lake, we switched to an internal combustion engine - first it was a kayak, and then a Prius PHV. We can say that this is the “four and a half” generation, because outwardly it is almost identical to the current one, but it has an upgraded drive and the ability to recharge the battery from the network.
On the second day we had a longer streak. The route, about 250 km long, led to Warsaw via Olsztyn, Szczytno, Ciechanów and Płońsk. Less traffic than the previous day, the route is more scenic, but the road is narrower, more winding and often hilly, so also not conducive to drop rallies. Before us, however, was Warsaw, which we feared from the very beginning - not only was there a summit of European presidents, but also Barack Obama arrived in the afternoon, which meant street closures and huge traffic jams. For a moment, the Toyota Driving Academy instructors who run the Eco Challegne thought about taking a short cut and ending the rally at some gas station before driving into those terrible traffic jams.
In practice, however, it turned out that everyone was afraid of Obama and either refused to drive their own car or fled the center very early in the afternoon. So Warsaw met us almost calmly on Sunday morning.
At the finish line it turned out that we had the best time, but also the best fuel consumption. Overall, though, it wasn't all that bad. Of the seven starting teams, we took fourth place - we lost third with a difference of 0,3 points! Our average fuel consumption on both days was 4,3 l/100 km. The top crew achieved 3,6 litres, but the penalty for being late was so high that they ended up at the bottom of the table. The winners reached 3,7 l/100 km and avoided fines for exceeding the time limit. Considering the mileage of more than 550 km in normal city traffic, I think that the results are quite satisfactory - I would like to be able to get closer to this burning by taking my family on vacation.
