FirstDrive: Honda Civic Hybrid: Strange, isn't it, the things people do to get into the record books.
Suresh Joachim, for instance, stood for 76 hours on one foot; Paddy Doyle did 1,500,230 press-ups in 12 months; Matthew Henshaw dangled a 44lb bag of spuds from the handle of a 40cm sword he'd swallowed and, earlier this year, English couple, John and Helen Taylor, set off to drive round the world using as little fuel as possible.
They started from Waterloo Place in London and ended, 78 days and 18,000 miles later, at Southbank - a few hundred yards further down the road.
During that time they filled their tank 25 times, managing an astonishing 60 miles to the gallon (or 4.7L/100km). They did this not in a swanky-pants space-age vehicle, but by driving their standard-issue VW Golf "conservatively".
No boy-racer stunts, no hard braking and no speeding. In a word, they drove gently.
By coincidence, I have spent the past week driving Honda's new hybrid Civic, which also does 60mpg. I couldn't help but think that if the Taylors could get 60 out of a Golf, what could they have done with this ultra-efficient hybrid Honda?
I only managed a shameful 37mpg (7.6L/100km) - clearly, I need a gentler touch.
The Civic is the latest incarnation of Honda's IMA hybrid technology.
IMA stands for Integrated Motor Assist and has been around for a decade now. In essence, the car has two engines - a standard 1.3-litre petrol one and an electric one to help share the load. Putting two engines into a car which only needs one may smack of over-specification, but in fact it is the pinnacle of green motoring. The heat energy generated by braking is stored in the car's massive batteries and then harvested by the IMA system to power the car. This reduces emissions and petrol consumption. The new twist to the IMA for this model is that the engine also cuts out completely when you idle at the lights or find yourself coasting with your foot off the gas - it restarts as soon as you depress the throttle. For anyone, like me, who has spent years grimly revving suspect engines to stop them from stalling, the eerie quiet which descends every time you stop is quite unnerving. This energy-saving system is so effective that the Honda has been named World Green Car for 2006.
It's also cheaper than the Toyota Prius, coming in at €27,995, benefiting from the 50 per cent VRT reduction on offer for all hybrids. Honda has made sure its clever car doesn't wear its eco-credentials too proudly on its sleeve - believing that customers are put off by the fact that "other environmentally friendly cars look like deflated rugby balls".
So this Civic is an ordinary-looking "I'm not trying to save the planet" saloon. Which will stand it in good stead with many owners but is a bit of a shame as its ground-breaking technology deserves to be showcased in something more, well, ground-breaking.
And, in terms of records, it might interest you that the first land-speed record (a nippy 63km/h) was set in 1898 by Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laudat - in an electric car.