In some ways Jack Godbehear was not a surprising winner, as he was a most highly regarded motor engineer, with a great knowledge of the very early Porsche engines and in particular, for his expertise with the complex four cam unit used in the 550 Spyder and 356 Carreras. Of course Economy Runs were not everyone’s cup of tea and it was clear that some competitors, whilst very happy to participate, preferred instead to drive the cars in the way they were meant to be driven. In this first event, a certain Will Darvall was the last placed Porsche, recording a figure of 14 Litres per 100KM (20.1 MPG) in his 2.7 Carrera RS: Will was always happier flattening his accelerator foot, rather than feathering it. The second Economy Run was conducted a year later in December 1978, with a rather disappointing 16 starters`. At a distance of 108 kilometres, this was a much shorter event than the previous one and travelled through Healesville, Yarra Glen and Eltham. Again in contrast to last year’s event, the route was quite hilly, giving competitors the opportunity to travel quite long distances with engines switched off, even going uphill, after they had built up sufficient speed either on the flat, or after a downhill run. Another well-known Porsche motor engineer and club member John Gregory won this event, with a substantial improvement on his performance in the previous year, going from 7.0 litres per 100KM (40.24 MPG), to 4.4
litres per 100KM (64.16 MPG). Although PCV Economy Runs continued right through the eighties into the nineties, the last of the Runs in which I was involved was the December 1979 event. This was organised by the then Competition Secretary Warwick Freemantle, who set quite a demanding route from Ringwood, via Lilydale, Healesville and the Black Spur to Eildon, with a number of check points along the way. (As a matter of interest the cost of fuel at the time of this event had risen to around 30 cents per litre – still fairly cheap by today’s standards).
FACING PAGE Ros Poon fills up in the Economy Run 1995. TOP Economy Run lunch 1980. BOTTOM 944 Turbos fill up for the Economy Run.
John Gregory was again the winner recording 4.36 litres per 100KM (64.83 MPG) - similar to his performance the previous year.
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