Brisbane Melbourne round Trip

[brismike]

Just did a round trip from Brisbane to Melbourne & back. Went down the Newell Highway via Dubbo to Melbourne and then back to Brisbane via the Hume & Pacific Highways with a stop in Sydney.

All up did 3716.3 k's on the round trip which included a side visit to Geelong to go see the Ford Discovery Centre. The XR6 used 304.4 litres of fuel during the trip. Total driving time was 44hr 14min. Average Speed including some City Driving in Melbourne and Sydney was 84kmh.

Mileage was 8.1 litres/100k's including the city stuff. Not bad as I usually get around 12's driving in the Brisbane suburbs.

The Hume Highway is greatly improved from the last time I drove it in 2003. Almost dual highway all the way from Melbourne to Sydney except for one small section that is currently being fixed by a bypass construction around Holbrook.

Pacific Highway between Sydney and Brisbane is also much improved but still has some horror sections between Port Maquarie and Kempsie and Coffs Harbour, Grafton & Byron. Looks like there is another 20 years of roadworks before all that is sorted.

The XR6 just gobbled up the highway using cruise control, mostly sitting on 110 or 100k's ticking over at just over 1500-1700 rpm. These cars are just made for this type of work.

The Ford Discovery Centre in Geelong is well worth the visit and cost $9.00 to get in. Here are a few interesting pics from there.


Cutaway of a BA Falcon

Cutaway showing the tailshaft under the rear seat

Test Crash Vehicle BA Falcon

1973 ACT Police XB Falcon

Prototype BA Falcon King Cab

Mike

[Shonky.]

f6 cutaway looks awesome

nice post!

[prydey]

crash vehicle looks to be a FG.

Nice road trip. I recently completed Adelaide to Bris and return, except i was in bris for 4 weeks. my FG returned very similar economy and i agree whole heartedly. they love the open road. mine sits on cruise the whole way except for a section between gilgandra and coona that is a little bit too hilly. cruise on the FG's tries to maintain your speed on the downhills as well but through there its just a bit too much. gearbox would be back to 3rd trying to hold it.

i worked out my economy after each fill and most tanks were around 8-8.3/100km with one or two dropping into the 7.9 range. awesome considering i had 4 on board + a boot full of luggage. overall for the trip, the computer said 8.7 and average speed of about 75. that includes the 4 weeks around bris and gold coast.

[brismike]

Yes sorry .. the Crash Test car is an FG not a BA. And I think the ute is an AU not a BA.

I also got 7.9 litres per 100k's between Brisbane and Melbourne which was mostly highway stuff. The city driving I did there and in Sydney pulled it up a little.

[robertjp]

Just did the same trip to the Gold Coast via the Pacific Hwy. Least NSW list were they have the speed cameras, like a little section were the speed limit goes from 110 to 90 then back to 110 just for the camera....