Million Kilometers by Car: Myth or Reality?
If a professional driver or a cabby ever tells you that their “hot wheeler” has gone over one million kilometers, try not to dismiss it like a fish tale or a sheer show-off.
Although it sounds incredible, 1,000,000 km is not as unattainable as you might think!
Imagine that you are on your 50th lap from St Petersburg to Vladivostok. THAT much, approximately.
Still seems exaggerated? What if we told you that the Guinness record for highest vehicle
mileage with a single car was set by Irvin Gordon from USA. His 1966 Volvo 1800S clocked-up 4.8 million kilometers. Yes, you’ve read it well – 4.8 MILLION KILOMETERS, which equals nearly 120 circumnavigations of Earth!
Talking about long-distance journeys, the longest one on 4 wheels began in 1984 and is still ongoing! We are talking about a Toyota Land Cruiser owned by the Schmids from Switzerland, whose odometer displayed 741.065 km in March 2017.
Let’s go back for a moment. No, not just through time, but literally – let’s go in reverse! Imagine driving backwards for 800 km… In 2004 a Canadian named Rob Gibney set the Guinness world record for fastest reverse drive over 500 miles, at an average speed of 66 km/h.
Are you not entertained? OK, how does SPACE sound to you?
Most of you probably remember the Tesla Roadster being launched into space in 2018. Talking about mileage, at the moment of writing this, the four-wheeler is at about 336 million kilometers away from Earth! In all fairness to this story of ours, although it has gone the farthest, we cannot say this was thanks to the engine and the wheels. But still, the Roadster made it to the Guinness world records as fastest car in space.
Not as close to a Guinness record, but definitely close enough to us, is an example from Slovenia. Namely, in 2018 the odometer of a 20-year old Subaru Forester stopped at 999,999 km, not having where to display the seventh digit. The owner, Mr. Jernej Jung from Ljubljana, has driven the car through forests, mountains, roads and highways – without a single break-down! How about that? According to Mr. Jung, the secret is…
Are you ready?
THE BIG SECRET IS…
Regular servicing and using only original parts.
There, you’ve just witnessed another truism. :-)
In all fairness, this will depend greatly on the engine’s quality and construction. Practical examples speak in favor of higher volume engines, where diesel ones have a slight advantage over their gasoline brothers.
But that doesn’t have to be the rule of thumb either. A well-known example is a Yugo bought for 320 EUR that started its journey in Rijeka and reached Mongolia! By the way, participation in the Mongol rally cost more than the car itself! However, the team behind the wheel decided to drive the “old clunker race” (a popular name among the contestants) in their own arrangement, going over 18,000 km!
So, regardless of the engine construction, quality maintenance that includes the right engine oil can make your car serve you in the long run. Hence, million kilometers is not so unattainable, or as some would have it “SKY’S THE LIMIT”.
Find the right oil for your engine with the help of our Lub advisor.
