Land Rover Discovery Sport And I Go Mudding

A lot of brands in the market make good off-road vehicles. But, there are only a few in the world that can take those capabilities and merge them with opulent luxury. And when you think of this combination, the first badge which comes to mind is certainly the green oval. So, when I got a chance to take the Land Rover Discovery Sport out into the wilderness on a rainy day, I jumped at the opportunity. But soon there was a problem. Like a kid trying out his first bike, I found myself stuck between two strong emotions - excitement and nervousness.

Excited because of the simple fact that Land Rovers are among the most capable off-roaders on the planet and the course I was going to take involved steep inclines, declines, river crossing etc. And nervous because my first proper off-road encounter was going to be on a rainy day in an SUV which costs more than Rs 65 lakh! Get stuck and my colleagues would never let me forget it.

I reached the location (19 Degree North, Aamby Valley, Lonavala) in the morning crossing beautiful mountains and driving through clouds. A perfect day to go off-road indeed. We were, or rather the SUVs were in the safe hands of Cougar Motorsport who would guide us through the course. Before getting behind the wheel, we were given a short briefing on how to approach obstacles, how we won’t be allowed to leave the vehicle during the course as there were snakes around and most importantly - there will be no bathroom breaks, so the 'personal business' had to be taken care of before we set on course.

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A quick bathroom break later, I got into my Land Rover Discovery Sport HSE Luxury. Next to me was my Instructor Sumit, who took me through the functioning of the Terrain Response system of the vehicle which had four drive modes - General Driving, Grass/Gravel/Snow, Mud/Ruts and Sand. Before we set off, he also taught me to control the speed of the Hill Descent Control, a feature that would soon become a saving grace.

We started the course on Grass/Gravel/Snow. The gravelly path ahead led us downhill. I reduced the speed of the Hill Descent Control to a minimum and let go of the brakes. While the butterflies in my stomach told a different story, the SUV was calm and started to descend gradually. A few humble metres later, the terrain became aggressive. There were rocks and boulders which, due to rain, had started rolling around. This made the course challenging and unpredictable. We quickly switched to the Mud/Ruts and I was told to again let go of the brakes as Hill Descent Control would keep the car at a slow and steady pace and won't let the wheels lock up. Going against my natural instincts to not completely let go of the brakes, I lifted my foot off the pedal and we started rolling gradually downhill over boulders. The only job left for me was to steer and avoid hitting the larger ones.

Next on the list was a steep decline and a sharp right. It was planned to be done over slight gravel but the rains had turned it into slush. I was told by Sumit to not steer and not make too many corrections as it would have only made things worse. Shifting into Grass/Gravel/Snow mode, we progressed further into the decent. The speed of the descent control made the car slip faster and hence I had to feather with the brakes. This made the wheels lock up and the two and a half tonne SUV slid down. Luckily, the ABS kicked in sharply and helped regain some lost traction. After manoeuvring the sharp, and now fast, right turn, we went on to another obstacle which looked quite scary.

There was a large water body at the middle of our course which was now even deeper. Though we could see the gentle entry into the brown water, the exit was nowhere to be seen. Trusting the instructor and briefly remembering God, I drove the Discovery Sport into the water. I could see the level of water rising slowly before reaching very close to the height of the wheel arches. Scared that the water might rise even further, I picked up a little speed as we sailed through the water course. As we made an exit onto slippery rocks, the ABS was fast to act and maintain traction while we reached a safe distance away from the water. The rocks were inclined, resulting in the SUV tilting steeply towards the left. With the tyres still wet, we had little traction to cross the angular stretch. In came words of advice from my instructor, “Do not stop or we will side down.” As inspiring as that sounded, I hit the gas pedal and rocketed through the incline. The SUV did slip down a bit but was fast to regain traction and pull us back up.

After a few more obstacles, one thing was clear. The Land Rover Discovery Sport was a lot more capable than I was. The Terrain Response system worked like magic, changing the throttle response and other settings to make it almost idiot-proof. We came out of the jungle course without a single bruise on us or the SUV. It's almost a shame to know how incredibly capable these SUVs are but most of these will spend a lifetime tackling traffic. It's almost like putting Rambo in a supermarket. Nonetheless, though I now have an amazing off-road experience, I doubt I will be able to replicate this performance with most of the other off-roaders out there as most of them won't be as capable as the Land Rover.

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