We had the pleasure of sampling Renault’s Arkana model recently but unlike many launches before it, this one included an eight-hour endurance event at Zwartkops Raceway. Ryan de Villiers reminisces about the event spent with the French brand.
Instead of a regular drive around the cityscape, we drove the HEV around the Zwartkops raceway in a pseudo-endurance race format where the goal was to have the most laps driven with the lowest fuel consumption possible. I’ll spare you the suspense and be upfront with how we performed.
246 laps and a fuel consumption of 8,5 L/100km (Renault claims 5 L/100km with more subdued driving).
Stone last. Our team (comprised of four individuals from different publications) managed to complete the least amount of laps with the highest fuel consumption of the day. We did get the memo that this was meant to be an economy run but our heavy foots instead had us claim the fastest lap time of the day! This may be the first time on the side of the circuit where achieving such is actually a bad thing! Remember, the name of the game for this; lowest fuel consumption is king.
So let us delve into it, shall we? Each teammate was required to drive for a total of two hours (split into one-hour segments). Drivers chose numbers ranging from 1 to 4 from a bag, which would determine the order in which they drove. Yours truly was third in the lineup, and this gave me enough time to sample the other activities that Renault had set up for the day at Zwartkops Raceway.
First up was karting. As my first time at the karting circuit, the ten-minute practice session and the ten-minute qualifying session would serve as opportunities to gather my bearings. In terms of lap times, I was stone last at the end of the practice run, but that standing would be flipped upside down come the end of qualifying where (by some miracle) I managed a lap time of 1:02.411. I started in pole position but spun out before turn two and subsequently finished the race in the same spot that I was in at the end of the practice session. Lessons learned – never forget your roots. Following the kick-off (and swift downfall) of my karting career, I spent some time trying to careen a Clio and Captur around the slippery skid pan a stone’s throw away from the karting circuit. Grappling understeer and limited traction, I will admit that my time was not impressive enough to brag about.
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Fast forward to midday and I had spent my first hour behind the wheel of the Arkana. Fuel consumption sat at 5,9 L/100km (the lowest it would be for our team all day). As the sun began to set my final stint came to an end. Beaten and fatigued, the surprise drive in the Megane RS Trophy 300 around the track, which we had occupied all day was an injection of adrenaline that perfectly curtailed the long day with Renault SA at Zwartkops raceway. Stay tuned for some words on that soon!
Keyword: Renault 8 Hour Driving Experience Recap