FIRST DRIVE: Taking Land Rovers off-road for real!

If you think Range Rover owners actually take their prized SUVs off-road for some good fun on a random day of the week, well, there’s a high chance you’d be wrong. In Malaysia at least. So when Jaguar Land Rover Malaysia told us that we could take some of its brand new SUVs off-road, we leapt at the opportunity.

The first order of the day was to take the handsome Range Rover Velar P250 R-Dynamic through a freshly-paved dirt route in MAEPS, Serdang. It was a painstakingly slow four-kilometre journey on muddied surfaces, plus the Velar we drove was literally brand new, with less than 100 km on the odometer. What’s worse, it poured the entire night before, and the Velar ran on factory Continental CrossContact LX Sport tyres.

After that, we took the Land Rover Discovery Sport through an “obstacle course” to find out the SUV’s breadth of capabilities. Examples include water wading tests, the frame twister course, as well a tennis ball challenge. The last course was timed – drivers are required to “touch” 10 tennis balls via the side mirrors (and the side mirrors alone) in under four minutes. If it touches any other part of the car before the side mirrors, or if you’ve exceeded the time limit, then you’re disqualified.

The test drive event was part of the Land Rover Above & Beyond Tour, which is a global initiative that enables Land Rover owners to test their off-road driving skills on a variety of obstacles. The best driver will win an eight-day, all-expense-paid trip to Namibia to drive the new Discovery, among other exciting activities.

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Matthew H Tong

An ardent believer that fun cars need not be fast and fast cars may not always be fun. Matt advocates the purity and simplicity of manually swapping cogs while coping in silence of its impending doom. Matt's not hot. Never hot.

 

Comments

  • Best Off Track SUV on Nov 08, 2019 at 11:51 am

    Talking about best SUV for off track purpose. From best to worst as below
    1) Land rover, 2) BMW X series 3) Benz G series 4) Subaru, 5) Ford 6) Mazda 7) Peugeot 8) Toyota 9) Havak 10) x70 11) Volvo.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 4
    • Jonn Dol on Nov 08, 2019 at 6:42 pm

      1) Land Rover 2) Toyota 3) Merc G series 4) Jeep 5) Ford 6) Suzuki 7) The rest are poseurs..

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
  • mahraja lawak on Nov 08, 2019 at 12:03 pm

    Range Rover Velar? nowadays even Landie Defender more for poseurs then offroaders. kih4

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 0
    • Not Toyota Fan on Nov 08, 2019 at 4:21 pm

      The new, soon to be launched Defender is even EV. Try taking that into the boonies.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Jonn Dol on Nov 08, 2019 at 12:13 pm

    Of all the current SUV makers, only Land Rover/Range Rover, Toyota, Mitsu, Mercedes, Suzuki, Isuzu, Ford, Jeep have true off-roading heritage & capability. The rest are just tarmac champion..

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
  • Hamaw on Nov 08, 2019 at 1:04 pm

    (Like) Bring your RR Velar hepi2 go offroad.
    (Dislike) Your RR Velar mati2 xbawak offroad

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 4
  • Matt sounds nervous

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Not Toyota Fan on Nov 08, 2019 at 4:19 pm

    LR going off road is like a duck taking to water lah. (Well, except that Victoria Beckham designed Evoque SUV).

    Range Rovers are driven into the boonies during grouse shoots. Discos and Defenders are similarly used but by the staff and to carry the hunt dogs.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • Jonn Dol on Nov 08, 2019 at 6:38 pm

    Toyota no. 9 ????Even classic Land Cruiser are miles ahead than X-Series when it comes to Off-roading.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0
    • JOACHIM on Nov 09, 2019 at 1:11 am

      If u wanna talk classics, classic Unimog goes off road where Land Cruisers fear to tread

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • tk Ling on Nov 13, 2019 at 8:06 am

    I think most of the commenters are from concrete jungle. I’m Sarawakian, we know what is real 4×4 (I hate to say SUV), what’s not. If you want to go into jungle, drive a Land Rover ; if you want to come out from jungle, you need to drive a Land Cruiser.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 0
 

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