Swapped out the oil in my little beasty at 5,500km for 5l of Penrite 0W40 a day in advance of the trip, and had a few hundred k on the trip from current tank as I left Sydney.
Had to tank up at the Caltex at Tarcutta, as the light was about to come on, and running out was not a desired option.
My best tank to date is from that Caltex at Tarcutta to Melbourne and back to Tarcutta. Took about 50l, and the calculation I made at the time was 5.36 l/100. Google's streetview shows a Mobil, but I can assure you it's now a Caltex.
Mostly Hume highway "cruising" at speed limit + 10, only changing down from 5th for towns with either 50 zones or stop signs. I don't have cruise control and would maintain my target speed and then some at times both up hill and down dale.
I was driving smoothly, but not exactly with economy in mind. Played with the head of a fellow with a loud v8 Commodore who must have wondered why I wasn't disappearing in his mirrors as we exited an 80 roadwork zone. And I was only applying throttle in 5th... He was pulling away slightly, but I was most impressed with the usable highway midrange, given that all I could hear in my car was his!
And back to that oil change. Did it with the help of a mechanic mate's hoist so I could get the tray off. The engine & gearbox were still clean enough to eat off. Not one drop of leaked anything, anywhere. One of the longest sump bolts I've ever had the burnt finger pleasure of removing! And the sump is wrapped in what has to be yet more sound-deadening material. There is a hole in the tray that does allow an oil drain without removing the tray that I hadn't noticed till the car was hoisted. If you have ramps, this will work well as the drain faces backwards/the rear of the car.
I don't want to get into an oil war but can recommend both the oil I have chosen as well as ditching the factory oil well before the 15k service! The 5.36 figure is about 1.5 l/100 better than my previous best mix of city and enthusiastic country driving.
