The 2011 Ford Mustang V6 coupe has set a new record by running 1,457 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway while averaging 48.5 mpg. The Mustang 1,000 Lap Challenge was designed to demonstrate that a stock production Mustang V-6 could run 1,000 laps and 533 miles on a single of tank of fuel.
Photos: Paul Webb via Ford Media
With the aid of fuel efficient driving techniques by Ford engineers, the Mustang far surpassed its goal of 1,000 laps. The Mustang used in the challenge is a stock production vehicle that can be purchased through a Ford dealer.
The Challenge team included Roush Fenway Racing’s David Ragan and four Ford Mustang engineers, completed the challenge in 17 hours and 40 minutes.
“When we hit 1,000 laps we still had a quarter of a tank of gas left,” said David Ragan, driver of the #6 UPS Ford Fusion in NASCAR .
Mustang engineer Seong Park was driving when the car came to a halt along the backstretch of the track, at 12:41 a.m. EST. Other team drivers included Tom Barnes, Jonathan Mehl and Carl Ek. Each took one-hour driving stints during the event.
“This is beyond our wildest dreams,” commented Tom Barnes, the lead engineer for the Ford Mustang 1,000 Lap Challenge. “There have been a lot of people who have done a lot of things in preparing this 2011 Mustang V-6 to run the Mustang 1,000 Lap Challenge and have the success we have had today. It was great when we went past the 1,000 lap mark with David, but nobody could ever imagine that we still had five hours ahead of us.”