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Though I'm certain that Todd was holding way back in his 996 Cabriolet, the rest of us were working very hard to keep up. I only had a few moments between counter-steering and drifting through turns, to snap a few shots of the scenery, of which I was trying not to become a part. |
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The five of us who caravanned together from Riverside Land Rover made it safely. |
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We were greeted by the sight of eight shiny Range Rovers, plus a gaggle of safari-ready looking instructors. |
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After a brief drivers' meeting, we hit the trail. The instructors never drove; they guided us and informed us on vehicle specs, basic methods for driving in such conditions, ribald humor, etc. |
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Here is the gauntlet we ran. We didn't even take the easiest path up. |
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We were in this silver Range Rover. Having seen the terrain, I was already glad I didn't accept their offer to try my Tahoe on the trail. Besides, this is a far more luxurious ride. |
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Here's the shot they sent me after the event, showing me grinning from the soon-to-be-pummeled Rover. |
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This is what we'd call a minor obstacle. To avoid high-centering the SUV, we put our left wheels over the boulder. It was quite easy. The usual off-road mantra is "as slow as possible, as fast as necessary," but I started a new one: "It's not my car, it's not my car." |
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Here's a good example of the advantages of the Range Rover's axle articulation. It has fully-independent suspension, which makes for a very smooth ride. Further, it boasts adjustable-height air suspension (access, to get in and out easily, standard, for street driving, high, for off-roading, and highway, which it automatically lowers itself to when traveling at highway speeds). To allow it to navigate such extreme terrain, the air shocks are linked from side to side to force the wheels to remain in contact with the ground, despite huge differentials in height (about three feet). |
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This was a larger obstacle. Though we could pass right over it at 1-2 mph, each vehicle stopped for a photo op. The switch-oon-the-fly differential and all-time four-wheel-drive is set up to lock-up the brakes on wheels without traction quite quickly, so that the wheels with traction get the power and with a minimum of wheelspin. It worked well. |
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All this was often done in very tight quarters. Again, the mantra "It's not my car, it's not my car." |
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Shot from inside while we were going over that last big obstacle, we could see there was much more ahead That's Fred, our instructor/guide. |
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All the instructors were veterans of the Camel Trophy series of extreme off-road events. Fred took 2nd place in Borneo in 1996, if I recall. He helped us do things with that Rover that I wouldn't have imagined at the start of the day. |