[GTO]

Mumbai's Offroad Junkies - backed by Distinguished BHPian Tejas, Allan & Amol - goes international! Congrats team.

Recently, Offroad Junkie was contacted by Mercedes Benz Driving Academy (South-East Asia) head Mr. Peter Hackett to design and construct a track for the GLC's launch in Hong Kong.

The brief was simple: Hong Kong has never seen a true offroad track made from natural elements. Mercedes Benz not only wanted to showcase the GLC, but also the GLA and GLE on the tracks.

After months of discussion on materials, diagrams, CAD layouts and site visits to Hong Kong, the big day arrived. The venue chosen was the Central Harbourfront Event Space in Hong Kong Island (next to the Big Wheel / Observation Wheel). The managers of the event space had strict criteria about the land; Offroad Junkies couldn't risk any damage & there was going to be no digging. Thus, the obstacles had to rise above the ground.

People who know Hong Kong, know that it’s a small country and very expensive. Most of the ‘dirt’ had to be imported from mainland China.

The build up time was only 2 working days. What it entailed:

- 1500 tons of soil
- 1500 tons of construction waste
- 500 tons of gravel
- 25 logs
- 1 ton of grass
- 100 traffic cones
- 40 tyres
- Special drift tyres
- Literally hundreds of trucks in a convoy to carry in the ‘dirt’, and then to carry it back out at the end of the event
- Build time: 26 hours only (working 9 am to 10 pm)
- Number of people involved in the set up: 20 crew members
- Heavy machinery excluding trucks: 3
- Auxiliary crew included supervisors, team leaders, project managers, translators, etc.

The track was designed in such a way that 25 cars could run on it at the same time without any issues to the track. Here, it’s important to note that natural element tracks are prone to wear (unlike obstacles fabricated from metal). Thus, as vehicles keep moving, ruts would form and the ADR angles would change. However, the team's 'pressure layered slice concept' build techniques ensured that the track would remain within its prescribed tolerances. Only at night would a standby crew work to repair any track damages.

Here’s a video that sums up the entire experience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy-c0gum49I

What does Offroad Junkie do?

Offroad Junkie is Asia’s only I4WDTA certified company engaged in the business of all things related to offroading and 4x4 vehicles. Among the things they do are offroad track designing, offroad competitive & trail drive events, 4x4 training, safety & rescue driving skills, 4x4 customisation advice & more.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the 4x4 Section!

[The Rationalist]

Wow! Awesome, guys take a bow. An amazing job, considering the time and material constraints. With all the dust kicking up, didn't the authorities intervene ! You have made everyone proud. Hope to see you guys do more in far off lands.

[amoghchaphalkar]

I first read about this event on Offroad Junkie's Facebook Page (Link) and was delighted to see a team from India build a custom offroad track for Mercedes in Hong Kong!

In my eyes, it is a massive achievement. One that the entire fraternity should be proud of. Kudos to the Offroad Junkies team and I am sure this is just the beginning of more big things to come.

[srishiva]

Wow, Great Job putting a off road track from ground up.
Was there any terrain that was toned down due to vehicles not performing well ?

[maddy42]

Hats off Tejas, Alan and Amol. That was amazing event. Which one of these was your favorite to drive in? Which was that sedan in the mix?

Maddy

[Chethan B G]

WOW! Complete track constructed in 2 days! Amazing!! Can't even imagine!

To top it up, can anyone imagine Chinese (even though Hongkong is autonomy technically) taking support from outside, that too India for a job like this!! Our people must be very good at it! Congrats!!

Edit: Just curious; Was the crew from India or local?

[deetjohn]

Brilliant job Tejas! Your passion and work ethic for off-roading is very commendable. Keep it up!

And be careful, many Indian cities are going to give you tough competition. The manufacturers might soon realize the benefit of inviting prospective customers to select Indian cities and make them drive these UVs on our well developed offroad tracks with a bit of tarmac in between.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Thanks a lot folks. Sorry for the delayed reply.

It's a great feeling being appreciated and its a super duper feeling putting India on the global map!

We're probably the first ever Indian company that has gone abroad to do stuff while most Indian companies still call in people from abroad to design tracks and drive vehicles. We sincerely hope that this trend would change.

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

Wow! Awesome, guys take a bow. An amazing job, considering the time and material constraints. With all the dust kicking up, didn't the authorities intervene! You have made everyone proud. Hope to see you guys do more in far off lands.

Thanks mate. The ground was watered as much as possible and thankfully we didn't have any issues with the authorities.

Originally Posted by amoghchaphalkar

I first read about this event on Offroad Junkie's Facebook Page (Link) and was delighted to see a team from India build a custom offroad track for Mercedes in Hong Kong!

In my eyes, it is a massive achievement. One that the entire fraternity should be proud of. Kudos to the Offroad Junkies team and I am sure this is just the beginning of more big things to come.

Thanks amogh! I remember you being the first one to comment as well

Originally Posted by srishiva

Wow, Great Job putting a off road track from ground up.
Was there any terrain that was toned down due to vehicles not performing well ?

Thanks.

We received the vehicle specifications months in advance and our drawings were made accordingly and sent to the contractors before hand. So no toning down of an obstacles.

Only issue was that construction costs in HK are huge and we had to merge a few obstacles which were initially designed separately for all classes of vehicles. Thus, they were designed with the lowest spec car's clearances and was a cake walk for the others.

Originally Posted by maddy42

Hats off Tejas, Alan and Amol. That was amazing event. Which one of these was your favorite to drive in? Which was that sedan in the mix?

Maddy

Thanks maddy. I loved the GLE coupe!

That sedan was basically to demonstrate the advantages of ESP on and ESP off to see how when it's on, it's extremely difficult to spin your vehicle.

Originally Posted by Chethan B G

WOW! Complete track constructed in 2 days! Amazing!! Can't even imagine!

To top it up, can anyone imagine Chinese (even though Hongkong is autonomy technically) taking support from outside, that too India for a job like this!! Our people must be very good at it! Congrats!!

Edit: Just curious; Was the crew from India or local?

Thanks. We were contacted by AMG Driving Academy in Australia to do the event in HK.

Only the three of us were from India. The crew were local Hong Kong guys

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Brilliant job Tejas! Your passion and work ethic for off-roading is very commendable. Keep it up!

Thank you very much.

And be careful, many Indian cities are going to give you tough competition. The manufacturers might soon realize the benefit of inviting prospective customers to select Indian cities and make them drive these UVs on our well developed offroad tracks with a bit of tarmac in between.

Lol

A few more pics:

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Some more pics.

My favourite vehicle:



More pics of the vehicle that was launched, the GLC:















Few pics sourced off the net from Mercedes Benz Hong Kong's FB page and from other photographers like Chester Ng (A world renowned automobile photographer - you guys should google him and see his work)

I'm happy to answer any more queries about this event and any other.

Lastly and more importantly, we would like to thank what i call my alma mater, Team-bhp. I've gained a lot of knowledge and friends here and has help me in this journey of mine.

Also would like to thank Autocar India and Shaman Wheels (Mumbai Mercedes Dealer): These two companies gave us a chance to showcase our skills when we were nobody. We will always be indebted to them.

[dhanushs]

Amazing Job Teajs & team!!.. Congrats and may you build many more tracks!

Originally Posted by GTO

...However, the team's 'pressure layered slice concept' build techniques ensured that the track would remain within its prescribed tolerances. Only at night would a standby crew work to repair any track damages....

Could you please elaborate on this?

Thanks,

Dhanush

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by dhanushs

Amazing Job Teajs & team!!.. Congrats and may you build many more tracks!


Could you please elaborate on this?

Thanks,

Dhanush

Hi Dhanush,

Thanks for your wishes.

This is a trick we learned from a civil engineer friend and modified it to use a bit of binding clay, gravel, and other fillers.

After a lot of trial and error over months we got this concept correct and the rut formation was drastically reduced as compared to a regular mound created with plain soil.

Being an open forum, i can't elaborate more since this one of our USP

Patent Pending

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Some more pics.

I'm happy to answer any more queries about this event and any other.

Lastly and more importantly, we would like to thank what i call my alma mater, Team-bhp. I've gained a lot of knowledge and friends here and has help me in this journey of mine.

Congratulations Tejas, Allan and Amol. Feel proud of you !

Shubhendra Singh