Economy Run Changes

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28973, 14 August 1959, Page 14

Economy Run Changes

There will be important changes in the rules of the 1959 Mobilgas economy run, entries for which are now being called. This year the cars will compete on their actual mileage a gallon performance over the four-day, 1100-mile course. The *‘ton-miles-a-gallon” formula for establishing the winners has been dropped in favour of the more straightforward actual miles-a-gallon basis. The “tonmiles” formula—the weight of the car multiplied by the mileage, and divided by the number of gallons of fuel consumed —was necessary in previous economy runs in putting all the cars on the same footing. This enables an overall winner to be found irrespective of the size of the car and its engine capacity. Four Classes

This year the cars will be divided into four classes of approximately the same engine capacity and there will be four main prizes—one for the winner of each class. As the cars will be competing only in their own classes there will be no sweepstake award for the car returning the best hypothetical “ton-miles” result.

Each class winner will receive a silver tea service and a lash award of £lOO, and there will be second and third prizes of £5O and £25 respectively in each class. The main purpose of the Mobilgas economy run is to show all owners of modern, popular models what their particular car can achieve in economical mileage. The sponsors believe the average driver is more interested in the actual performance of his own model in the contest, and the event has been altered accordingly. This year only one observer will be carried by each car, and will ride in the front passenger seat with the driver. Route Of Run

An extra day has been added to the 1959 run to make it the longest yet of the five runs that have been held in New Zealand. The run will commence at Blenheim, proceed south to Invercargill, and finish at Christchurch on November 20. Entries are now open and close at noon on September 11. The event is open to any owner of a popular model of 1958 or 1959 make. When all entries have been received they will be balloted to select the representative car of each model which will take part in the run.