Photo: Alpina
In July 1981, Auto Motor Sport and Shell organized a weird event called the Kilometer Marathon. It's main goal was to see which car could get the best fuel efficiency on a 1 km (0,6 miles) test course.
This proved to be a matter of pride for the German tuner who set out to create the most efficient BMW to date, exhausting the possibilities included in the regulatory framework for that time.
Competing against over 120 other teams, the 318i BMW created by Alpina managed to win the Class III destined for cars that weighed up to 1,300 kg (2,866 lb) with a fuel consumption of only 2,672 l/100 km (105.72 mpg).
Extreme modifications were done to the car in order to achieve such numbers, like aerodynamic ungrades, running on two cylinders, power delivered to only one driven wheel and the fuel was cooled on the way to the engine.
Of course, these alterations were not (and still aren't) applicable for daily motoring but they proved to be possible and technically feasible almost 30 years ago, in order to drastically reduce fuel consumption.
Competing against over 120 other teams, the 318i BMW created by Alpina managed to win the Class III destined for cars that weighed up to 1,300 kg (2,866 lb) with a fuel consumption of only 2,672 l/100 km (105.72 mpg).
Extreme modifications were done to the car in order to achieve such numbers, like aerodynamic ungrades, running on two cylinders, power delivered to only one driven wheel and the fuel was cooled on the way to the engine.
Of course, these alterations were not (and still aren't) applicable for daily motoring but they proved to be possible and technically feasible almost 30 years ago, in order to drastically reduce fuel consumption.
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