Video: Can we drive 856 miles from England to Austria on one tank of fuel?

History is punctuated by epic journeys. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic. In 1969, Neil Armstrong and chums rocketed 250,000 miles to land on the Moon. In 2011, Drew Stearne and Rory Reid hopped in a Volvo S60 Drive and attempted to drive from Marlow in England to Mayrhofen in Austria on a single tank of diesel.

Some may argue our mission was less impressive than those of our forebearers -- that we were walking on the shoulders of giants. The reality, however, was that our endeavour was far more difficult, as the distance between our start and end points was an incredible 856 miles and the theoretical maximum range of our vehicle was a mere 850 miles. If we were going to succeed, we'd have to boldly drive like no men had driven before.

Sadly, as you'll see in the above video, we drove like imbeciles. Within seconds of setting off, a debate about poo caused us to take a wrong turn, meaning we wasted valuable fuel heading north on the motorway instead of east towards the continent.

Upon reaching France, fuel economy suffered again as our intrepid duo pre-occupied themselves with a heavyweight intellectual debate about whether Spider-Man could defeat Superman in armed combat. Later, they compromised the mission almost beyond repair, succumbing to temptation and thundering at top speed along a derestricted German autobahn.

Clearly this was a mission doomed to failure, but it was one the team hoped and prayed could be salvaged by the astounding fuel efficiency of the S60 Drive. Did they succeed? Did they run out of fuel on a dodgy Austrian back street? Did being stuck in a car together all that time cause them to tear each other's eyeballs out? Today, we answer all those questions and more in the video above.

Grab yourself some popcorn, fire up your speakers and kick back as the hypermiling magic unfolds. If you want more behind-the-wheel bickering footage, you can watch the video diary the pillocks made as they went along here.

• Produced by Drew Stearne.