Grace and Pace with amazing economy !!

[Lord Sladacre]

I cannot believe the economy achieved by my S - Type (Dec 03) 3.0 Litre, petrol, 6 speed automatic, on a mainly motorway journey from Kent to Dorset yesterday a total of 146.8 miles. The trip indicator tells me that I managed an astounding 37.8 mpg at an average speed of 57 mph !! of course, I was doing 70 - 80 mph on the motorway, probably 80% of the journey, 20% were A and B roads. I didn't use the cruise control but was ultra steady with the right foot !! This was with the V - Power high(er) performance petrol (Shell).  Figures with lower RON 95? going to Kent on Saturday were marginally less eg: 35.9 mpg and an average speed of 54 mph. - still mightily impressive i think.  These are trip indicator readings - i would be interested to know if other members do in fact achieve similar performance figures, as it would help to validate the accuracy of mine.

On another note my stay was unintentionally extended due to me locking the keys in the boot of the car - when the rest of the car was already locked. I couldn't believe it !! Why I used the "boot only" function to open the boot simply to put wine / flowers inside and didn't open the entire car, I know not. Teeming with rain, 5pm and the RAC quoting a 5hr response time !! In fact they appeared within the hour and stayed for two hours. Managed to get into the car - but not the boot. Solid bulk head behind the rear seats on the later 2003 model. Had to wait (until Monday) for my good lady to send up the spare key !! Does any member know of a trick to gain entry in the same situation? Unbelievably lucky as the Airshow tickets for Battle of Britain show at Duxford were in the car and not the boot - so gratefully visited show by my brothers  X - Type, sadly not my glorious "S". Thank you for any thoughts in advance.

Kind regards 

Dominic