The MPG Marathon is one of the world’s most mind-numbingly boring automotive challenges devised a number of British eco-mentalists. In it they cover a great distance in as economical a manner as possible, trying to see by how much they can beat the manufacturer’s claimed consumption ratings. And the winner is this year with the biggest improvement is the, well, a V8-powered Ford Mustang GT!

You see, it’s not the MPG rating itself, but how much better it can be compared with the official economy ratings. And in that aspect the latest Ford Mustang GT V8 blew the competition away by achieving 36.6mpg over 430-mile course, which is a 75 per cent improvement over the US muscle car’s official 20.9mpg. It is very impressive, but not really applicable in the real world because if getting the most MPGs is what you want, you’re never going to get a 430hp muscle car with a 0-60 time of 4.8 seconds.

Kevin Griffin, Ford of Britain sales director, said:  “Since right-hand drive Mustang arrived here at the beginning of the year, over 3,000 have been delivered to proud new owners – two thirds of them with 5.0-litre V8 engines.  They powered Mustang to the top of the sales charts as the UK’s top selling high performance sales car.  But a high power rating need not necessarily mean excessive fuel consumption – as this year’s MPG Marathon has demonstrated.”