This week, I have mostly been driving slowly.

I wasn’t well the weekend before last. It was some kind of flu, the genuine kind and not the man type that certain friends (read female) decided that I had. Despite feeling like death warmed up, I had to take a one hundred and twenty mile drive which I couldn’t get out of. It consisted of motorway and B road work, something I would normally relish, but on that particular day it was the last thing I felt like doing.

To make matters worse, I had to take the Integra because of its carrying capacity, a car which is possibly the least well suited to my journey when my whole body ached. It’s not that the controls are heavy and awkward to operate, it’s just the suspension is somewhat stiff, despite being completely standard. Every bump I traverse would reverberate throughout my body, enjoyable and exhilarating when you’re in the mood, but not this weekend.

As I wasn’t in a rush I decided to take it easy for the day, limiting myself to 2500rpm on acceleration, sticking to the speed limits and generally taking it easy. Ensconced in the deep Recaro’s fitted, the relaxed drive surprisingly suited the car, and I emerged at the half way point feeling half decent considering my poorly state. More surprisingly, after sixty miles the fuel gauge had barely moved off the full position. A fluke I thought.

I’ve always had a lot of respect for the Integra and its overall engineering integrity. A car which can rev reliability to 9000rpm on an alarmingly regular basis and not blow itself to smithereens is still a marvel to me, especially for someone who was weaned on fast Peugeots. Top that off with incredible fuel consumption – a regular 27mpg despite the fact that I drive it like an arse most of the time – and an indecent turn of speed the engine is an incredible piece of kit.

On returning home after the 120 mile trip, I decided to brim the car again with fuel and did the relevant calculations. Then I did the sums again, surely something was wrong. 45.6mpg! This is a full fat performance car, a vehicle capable of taking chunks out of some seriously expensive machinery, and it’s returning a better consumption figure than many a diesel family car.

To make sure it wasn’t a one off, I decided over the next tank of Tesco’s 99 to continue my ecodrive. This would take in an average week of driving with a mix of short journeys, motorway work and general usage, all using exactly the same driving method that I had done the previous weekend. Sure enough after a week of plodding I returned 41.5mpg, not as good but considering there were several cold starts involved during that week, this was an impressive figure none the less.

Unfortunately I have since slipped back in to my sinful full throttle ways but I am still quite smug that when the occasion arises I can sip petrol with the best of the eco boxes.