Fuel's Running Empty: How Far Can You Drive Until Zombies Catch Up with You?

Ever watched those "zombie apocalypse" movies? If you observe very closely, most of them involved car chases, where humans often did the running and zombies did the chasing.

This made us sit up and think a bit. If there aren't any gas stations to fill your car up, and all you can do is scavenge for vehicles whenever (and wherever) you can, how far would you go before zombies catch up with you and eat you alive?

Survival of the fittest (car)

Now suppose there’s a starting point somewhere, with zombies falling into two categories: Rage Zeds (also known as the infected, full sprinters, or "runner" zombies) and Walkers (also known as the "walking" zombies), and they have limitless endurance like Lance Armstrong (on dope), how far would your car go before they--particularly the sprinters--catch up and feast on your precious entrails?

So to curb our curiosity, we're giving you some of the well-known cars we have in the Philippines, and use YourMechanic’s analysis as our reference in this important and most monumental study.

And to make things easier for you, we’re going to use U.P. Academic Oval as a practical guide when estimating how far these distances cover.*

Now let's see how far it takes before you can "out-drive" those vicious, vicious zombies and stay alive (at least for the time being):

Here's our (unscientific) analysis

Do your best to get a Nissan Altima, Mazda 3 or CX-5 when running away from zombies--especially Rage Zeds. We know this can be a bit challenging on your part, but these models will probably give you the farthest distance when you can't gas up anywhere.

Hyundai Elantra and Ford models--while decent cars on their own--will give you the least odds of staying alive longer. Avoid these vehicles whenever possible, or pray you're dealing with Walkers, instead. Better yet, just use them when the zombie apocalypse is finally over.

So, there you have it--extremely valuable tips on how to increase your chances of escaping from zombie attacks before your car dies out on you.  Keep this handy guide with you for safe keeping, because you never know, right? You'll thank us in the end.

*Let's loosely assume that Rage Zeds walk at less than or equal to 15 minutes per mile (1 mile = 1.6 km), or faster than 6.4 km/h, while Walkers walk at around 20 minutes per mile, or slower than 4.8 km/h.