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Audi Efficiency Challenge A to B
A village on its feet
Bée at Lago Maggiore, an entire village is on its feet. The Carabinieri wave the cars into town, the Alpinisti form a guard of honour, the mayor waves the chequered flag and the Challenge cars roll across the finish line. Small boys are already swarming over the first cars, with ten year-old Sergio up front, “How many cylinders does this big Audi have?” “Dodici – twelve!” “Dodici???” “And how many Cavalli?” “Cinquecento – 500!” “Cinquecento?????” “Yes really, that is an Audi Q7 V12 TDI, and it completed our trip of roughly 4,200 kilometres with an average fuel consumption of less than ten litres!” It seems that Sergio is not as impressed by that.
But the other participants in the Audi Efficiency Challenge are – and with the 5.0 litres for the Audi TT TDI, the 4.4 litres for the Audi A4 2.0 TDI e and even the 3.3 litres for the Audi A3 1.6 TDI. All of these are figures well below those of the published nominal fuel consumption for these models. The Efficiency Challenge has proven that Audi’s stated consumption figures are close to reality, and that even these figures can be undercut with an efficiency-conscious driving style.
The last day, the final leg – and, once again, Mother Nature pulls out all the stops. She beguiles with the charm of warm sunshine glancing across sparkling white mountain tops. The ninth leg of the Audi Efficiency Challenge is a day in the High Alps. After leaving Kitzbuehel, it heads past Wörgl on the E60/E45 and up the River Inn to Innsbruck. Passing by Telfs and Imst, the motorway continues on to Laneck, where it leaves the Inn. Shortly afterwards, it dips into a series of tunnels, the longest of which is the 14 kilometre long Arlberg road tunnel. To the south are the Verwall Alps, rising to over 3,000 metres. Near Bludenz, the landscape opens up and the road turns northwards toward Lake Constance.
Close to the south east edge of the lake, the route enters Switzerland – lunch is served in Rorschach. The well-kept little town on the lake boasts three railway stations and a dock for passenger ships. A monthly newspaper was printed in Rorschach in 1597 – presumed to be the world’s first periodical, and an historical monument for journalists of this world.
The Restaurant Aqua, fine dining in Rorschach, is located directly on the lake, with a glazed terrace overhanging the water. The restaurant has its own marina with 35 moorings. Lake Constance, with its 536 square kilometre surface area is a paradise for hobby sailors, with around 60,000 private boats currently registered there. The water quality is once more very good – 4.5 million people in Switzerland and Germany are supplied with drinking water from Lake Constance.
The E43, the Rhine Valley motorway, takes the Efficiency Challenge southwards, passing the principality of Liechtenstein and onwards to Graubünden. On the other side of the regional capital of Chur, it plunges into extremely mountainous terrain. In the country’s largest canton, which encompasses all of eastern Switzerland, there are no less than 462 peaks over 3,000 metres and one over 4,000, the Piz Bernina (4,049 metres). It also boasts 615 lakes. Graubünden is sparsely populated and is a microcosm of Switzerland. Alongside German, the languages spoken here also include Italian and Rhaeto-Romanic, a language closely related to Latin. Naturally, this is a very lengthy uphill stretch, which isn’t exactly good for efficiency. But, on the “other” side, it is pretty much non-stop relaxed downhill driving – even here, after we pass the Alpenhauptkamm and the San Bernadino Tunnel. After Bellizona in Tessin, it branches off the motorway to the western bank of Lago Maggiore. It skirts Locarno, which boasts the warmest climate in Switzerland, and crosses the border into Italy, where it follows the lake for several more scenic kilometres. Right before Verbania, it takes a turn to the right – to Bée, the ultimate destination of the Efficiency Challenge.
Alessandro Borella, the Mayor of the Commune di Bée, waves the chequered flag and welcomes the participants personally. There is a carnival atmosphere in the small village as the participants drive the last few metres of their long journey. Signore Serafini, the Carabinieri Marshall, and his squad ensure that order is maintained – that’s Italian order, of course, with kids all over the place, dogs barking and grandmothers chattering. A little festival to round off the Efficiency Challenge – it couldn’t have been better.
Audi Efficiency Challenge A to B
The long road to the mountains
Tuesday brings the Audi Efficiency Challenge a good deal closer to Bée. The one-day leg from Prague to the Alps measures no less than 608 kilometres. Through the Waldviertel (forest quarter), the tour rolls onward the next day into Austria, where it passes through some of the most stunning parts of the country. Austria is a baroque feast for the senses – something to be experienced up close in the wine-growing region of Wachau on both sides of the River Danube and in Salzburg. During the afternoon, the Efficiency Challenge reaches the Hochalpen (High Alps), where the glamorous town of Kitzbuehel marks the day‘s destination. Today’s route is not exactly conducive to efficient driving – yet the results turn out to be pretty impressive, as the individual figures in the efficiency monitor on this page clearly demonstrate.
From the very first metres driven, Tuesday isn’t shaping up to be a fuel-saving day; the rather slow-moving traffic out of Prague sets consumption on an upwards path. However, the apparently uncoordinated traffic light sequencing quickly becomes a set-piece for one of the Audi efficiency technologies – the automatic start/stop system cuts the engine as soon as the car comes to a standstill and the driver shifts into neutral, and restarts it again the next time the clutch pedal is depressed – smoothly and consistently. In the morning traffic of a major city, this adds up to a noticeable reduction.
The next stage of the Efficiency Challenge leaves the city on the banks of the River Vltava southwards, heading along the E 55 towards the border, with the “beer” town of Budweis on the right hand side. While the numerous road works, diversions and small towns along the way present a problem to “hypermilers”, they are nevertheless part and parcel of everyday driving from A to B.
The beautiful scenery of the Austrian Waldviertel has a soothing effect as the road passes the picturesque towns of Zwettl and Krems an der Donau. In Krems, the route turns westward, towards the Wachau valley, Austria’s fine wine region. The river landscape, framed by rocky outcrops and castles, is around 30 kilometres long and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. Going from A to B here is never very far, but always beautiful. The floodplains of the River Danube provide a habitat for storks, while weathered loam provides the base for excellent wines such as Grüne Veltliner and an elegant Riesling. The ups and downs of the small country roads, the vineyard tractors, the little villages – all part of regular traffic, handled very efficiently by Challenge participants. In Joching, an area of Weißenkirchen, the Holzapfel Vineyard provides a welcome lunch stop.
Melk is the western gateway to the Wachau valley on the right bank of the Danube, with the Melk Monastery – another World Heritage Site - towering majestically above it. The history of the Benedictine monastery dates back to the 11th century, but the structure was rebuilt between 1702 and 1746. The east facade, the so-called Prälatenhof (prelate court), the staircase, the marble hall and library, with their ostentatious décor, are more evocative of a castle than of an abbey; and the abbey’s Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, with its gilded altar and grand frescoes, is a frenzy of baroque shapes and colours.
The journey continues on the E 60 towards Salzburg. With its gorgeous location on both banks of the River Salzach, Mozart, the Salzburg Festival, the Cathedral, the Hohensalzburg Fortress, the baroque old town – the city of 150,000 is yet another pearl on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Once in Salzburg, the Efficiency Challenge heads for the Alps on country roads and, via St. Johann in Tirol, the end of this stage in Kitzbuehel. The town has a big tradition as a first-class winter sports resort – Kitzbuehel has over 56 cable car and chairlift installations covering 168 kilometres of piste, while the Hahnenkamm ski race attracts up to 100,000 visitors. The destination for Challenge participants the Grand spa Resort A-Rosa, the end point of a long day.
Wednesday will be another day filled with kilometres and impressive sights. The final one-day leg winds for 585 kilometres from Austria, through Switzerland to Italy – from Kitzbuehel to Bée!
Audi Efficiency Challenge A to B
Heading for Europe’s ancient treasures
So far, the (visible) police presence along the Efficiency Challenge route has been rather low. Only a few people live in northern Scandinavia, which necessitates only a few police officers – and, as the world well knows from the wealth of respected Scandinavian crime authors, they have more to do with major crimes than with traffic control. And even in the German capital of Berlin on the evening of the national elections, the police are concentrated on the street closures around party headquarters. It is another story altogether in the Czech Republic – significant resources are devoted to monitoring traffic. This starts just a few hundred metres after the border with the first heavy goods vehicle check point, then takes the form of numerous speed traps long the motorway and trunk roads, before culminating in Prague city centre in the area surrounding the tour’s hotel.
Fair enough, that’s understandable – the Augustine Hotel is located close to the Czech parliament, a host of embassies and the world famous Charles Bridge. A certain security presence has to be expected. It also quickly becomes clear that a lot of Czech drivers are somewhat creative in their interpretation of their country’s traffic regulations. You can also spot that they have a certain penchant for speed by the presence of a few “collars” at every control point. But it’s no joke for the Czech “Policie” with their radar guns.
Of course, this doesn’t present a problem for the participants in the Audi Efficiency Challenge. Each day, they receive an average speed target that leaves no room for dawdling; although, today, this is difficult to calculate due to a number of construction zones along the way. Naturally, maintaining the respective speed limit is part of efficient driving, and today, too, the exceptionally good average figures bear testimony to how well that works. Once again, it is the Audi brand’s “paragon of fuel consumption”, the new A3 1.6 TDI that is way out in front – it even completed the difficult leg from Berlin to Prague with an average consumption of only 3.7 litres. The second new product in the line up also shines with excellent results – the Audi A5 Sportback combines not only elegance and sporting character, but also comes with first-class efficiency as standard. On this leg, the Audi A5 Sportback 2.0 TFSI with 180 hp scored an average of a mere 5.3 litres.
The next morning, the day starts in the centre of Berlin with a short drive along the city’s grand boulevard Unter den Linden and past Tempelhof Airport (Berlin airlift!) on the autobahn, then in a straight line southwards. West of the Challenge route is Audi’s historical hometown of Zwickau - where August Horch established first the Horch brand and then, 100 hundred years ago, Audi – and Chemnitz, the former headquarters of the Auto Union.
On the outskirts of Dresden, the tour reaches the River Elbe. The capital of Saxony is a baroque gem where the Brühl’sche Terrasse, the Zwinger Palace and the neo-Classical Semperoper opera house line the banks of the river that, 250 years ago, was captured in paint by Italian artist Canaletto. The Frauenkirche, a war memorial, was rededicated in 2005, 60 years after it was destroyed.
Lunch is served at Schloss Pillnitz. The summer residence in the south east of the city is yet another architectural treasure, and the Challenge vehicles line up in the garden for a perfect photo call. Following the Elbe upriver, the route takes the B172 to the Czech border and onwards to Prague. The Czech Republic lies in the heart of Europe, from a geographical, cultural and historical perspective. It has many faces; it is a land of opposites and equilibrium, a European microcosm.
The character of the Czech Republic is sharply focused in its capital city. The golden city on the Vltava is over 1,000 years old. It has fully preserved its cityscape and its treasures and, in some places, it still radiates a poignant intimacy. The historical centre was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1992. The gigantic castle complex (Hradčany), Charles Bridge and its statues, the lively Wenceslas Square and the Guildhall in the Old Town with its astronomical clock are all historical highlights. The overnight quarters for the Efficiency Challenge, the Augustine Hotel in Prague’s “Lesser Quarter”, is made up of seven buildings. It incorporates part of the St. Thomas Augustine Monastery, which boasts a library dating back to the late Middle Ages.
Prague is also a youthful city, pulsing to the rhythms of its clubs and discos, and a centre of art and culture. Many of the clubs play host to open sessions, where visitors can take to the stage with their instruments. Then there are also the old, cosy inns, where The Good Soldier Švejk felt at ease – the most well known is the “U Fleku” (Fleck’s Place), which brews its own ale.
In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Prague was the capital of the German Empire. Founded in 1348, Charles University was Central Europe’s first seat of higher education. Czechs, Jews and Germans lived together here. The early 20th century saw poets like Kafka, Rilke and Werfel frequent the city’s coffee shops. The Czech people have always been freedom loving. The “Prague Spring” of 1968 is testimony to their courage and, on 30th September 1989, the city played host to the beginning of the end of the Eastern Bloc – when German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher stood on the balcony of the West German Embassy and told the refugees from the DDR that they were allowed to leave. Nowadays, the Czech Republic continues to invite people to travel from A to B – often just for the sake of it. The Czech Republic has many beautiful faces.
On Tuesday, the Challenge faces an especially lengthy leg – travelling 458 kilometres from Prague to Kitzbuehel in Austria – and a good closer to the final destination of Bée.
