little more than two days driving from Maidstone, Kent to the south of France and most of the way back. The final distance is a bit unclear — Conway says in the Times (subscription req.) that he drove 1,527 miles, but VW put the official figure at 1,531 miles. Either way, Guinness says it set a new record for distance traveled by a production car on a single tank of fuel.

Conway drove a standard production model Passat BlueMotion with a 1.6-liter TDI engine good for 105 horsepower. The car has a 77.25-liter (about 20.3 gallons) tank that ran dry just short of Calais, France, according to the Sun. Conway spent 33 hours and 53 minutes behind the wheel and averaged 45 mph.

VW and the British press say he got 90 mpg, and since it’s Europe we’re assuming they’re talking Imperial gallons. If so, that’s 74.9 mpg U.S.

For what it’s worth, Craig Henderson recently drove his homemade Avion 1,478 miles from Washington to Mexico and burned just 12.4 gallons of diesel for a stunning 119.1 mpg.

Photo: Volkswagen

Authors: Chuck Squatriglia

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