Electrical engineer Mick Craig got the shock of his life this week when a cold call told him he’d won a $42,000 ute in a national fuel economy competition he’d forgotten he’d entered.

Mick had to estimate to the nearest 100 metres how far economy expert Hans Tholstrup drove an Isuzu D-Max SX 4x2 crew ute over an outback route on just one tankful of BP Ultimate Diesel, driving for maximum economy.

Mick’s guess was incredibly accurate, just 1.1 kilometres short of the D-Max’s massive mileage tally of 1716.3 kilometres, an error of just 0.06 percent and the closest of around 8900 on-line eligible entries in the six-week Max Run Challenge on www.isuzuute.com.au.

As an estimating team leader in infrastructure projects for Brisbane-based Powerlink, Mick applied his analytical mind to the task and based his estimate on an earlier 1528 km one-tank run from Birdsville to outer Brisbane achieved by Hans Tholstrup in a single cab tray-bodied D-Max.

“The most I’ve ever won despite my many lotto entries is $25. I was sure it was a hoax call, but it’s fantastic!” Mick enthused.

“I was a bit partial towards Isuzu anyway, after my dad transplanted the engine out of an old, overworked and retired Isuzu truck into his Land Rover series II and 12 years on it’s still going strong,” Mick said.

Mick’s prize is a high-spec Isuzu D-Max LS crew-cab ute, but Mick plans to upgrade it to the 4x4 LS-U version and get more adventurous off-road than he dared in his mother-in-law’s 4x4.

On the Max Run, the D-Max’s 1716.3 kilometres—which included 175 km of harsh outback gravel—returned an average consumption of just 4.428 litres/100km—the economy of an electric-petrol hybrid or a small diesel car, not a 1750kg one-tonne five-seat ute with three litres of turbo-diesel torque.

Closer to normal motoring modes, ADR 81/02 official fuel economy figures show the D-Max 4x2 single cab/chassis’ 7.9 l/100km is best in the one-tonne ute/conventional cab class bar one smaller-engined, lower-output competitor. Among the class’s 4x4s, the D-MAX EX and SX 4x4 single cabs/chassis have the best fuel economy with a combined figure of just 8.1 l/100km.

Max Run route

So how far and where did Hans drive the D-Max in the Max Run?

From Far North Queensland Gulf Country’s Burke & Wills Roadhouse, the Max Run route zig-zagged south generally following famed explorers Burke and Wills’ fateful 1861 return trip direction.

The goal was their infamous Dig Tree supply depot location on Cooper Creek a distant 1664 km away. This was where the exhausted explorers had straggled back to over a month later than planned, only to miss by mere hours salvation from eventual starvation as incredibly their relief crew had decamped from there earlier that same day, having waited over four months for them.

D-Max driver Hans Tholstrup drove through Cloncurry, Winton, Longreach, Windorah, Eromanga, then out west across the Jackson oilfields and onto the dirt. He stopped at least 12 times including two overnights, and drove through flooded fords, dodged wildlife and battled head and side winds and some rain squalls for much of the route.

With the low fuel light on for over 150 km, Hans and the D-Max made it to the Dig Tree. They then backtracked 14 km to the main road, pressed on over the border into SA, through Innamincka at sunset and, eerily reminiscent of Burke and Will’s last push along the creek to their final demise, ran out of fuel in that same area another 24.3 km further on.

Darren Wilson, the SA government’s Senior Ranger, Desert Parks East based in Innamincka, was on hand to formally verify the D-Max’s odometer readings, check its Tamper Evident fuel filler flap seal was still intact as applied and witnessed at the start, and check that the spare wheel was still being carried.