Around the world in 70 days with 50 fillups

Phileas Fogg, the wealthy Englishman, went around the world in 80 days in Jules Verne's classic 'Around the World in 80 Days'. Here's an English couple trying to do it in 70 days and they want to beat Fogg by a mile by 'stretching' the fuel.

As part of the 'Shell Fuel Economy World Record Challenge', Helen and John Taylor are attempting to set the first around-the-world fuel efficiency Guinness World Record. The duo, as part of their trip, are now in Bangalore.

The duo have embarked on the trip around the world with the car fuelled by a new Shell petrol formulation. The attempt, which started in London, is set to cover approximately 28,970 km, across 25 countries, in 70 days and all on 50 fillups or less.

The Taylors, who hit the road on January 17, reached Bangalore on Tuesday after passing through European countries and then flying (avoiding bird flu-hit country Turkey and Iran) to Pakistan.

After touring Pakistan extensively, they crossed the Indian border at Moga and drove to Delhi. From Delhi, they headed south touching Jhansi, Bhopal, Nagpur, Hyderabad and then Bangalore.

So far the Taylors have covered 7,415 km achieving a mileage of 23.69 km per litre. Commenting on their four day travels in India, Helen Taylor said, "We are impressed with the rural folk, especially women, who always greeted us with a smile. On our way to Bangalore we encountered a lot of traffic."

From Bangalore, the drivers will fly to Bangkok and from there they will drive down to Singapore and fly to Australia.

The Taylor couple is driving a Volkswagen standard Golf FSI 1.6, representative of cars on the road today. The Taylors' car is accompanied by a crew trailing in two Volkswagen Passat estates. The crew includes an independent witness, a videographer to document the journey, a writer to help chronicle the Taylors' adventures and two Volkswagen support personnel.

John and Helen hold 34 fuel economy driving achievements (more than any other couple in the world). By the time they return to London in late March, they will have travelled across Europe, Asia, Australia and America.

For the challenge, the Taylors approached Shell to be their exclusive fuel provider after testing several commercially available fuels.

The Taylors' journey will provide Shell researchers with an opportunity to assess the performance and effectiveness of its new formulation, and will also enable them to further develop fuel efficient driving practices appropriate to widely differing road conditions. These learnings will be added to Shell's 'FuelStretch' principles ? a set of tips developed to help drivers around the world achieve better fuel economy.