[parambyte]

There are several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the forum experience for other readers.

Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use a spell-checker.

[Surprise]

Lovely photographs. Enjoyed reading through your narration

Originally Posted by Samurai

Some shots from the final 3 kms to Sandakphu:

What a steep climb with those hairpin bends...Do you have any videos of the uphill drive? How easy/tough would be this climb for a new endy or fortuner. BTW, what the turning radius of these LR, both old and new ones

[hemanth.anand]

Looks like a very well organised Event and wonderfully narrated Samurai. The narrow inclines looks pretty scary but at the same time they are just so inviting! Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by Samurai

I think we re-routed via the red path to avoid going into Nepal too much:
Attachment 1763299

But, isn't the red path completely in Nepal? Or did I get it wrong somewhere?

[libranof1987]

The landscape, drive terrain and car lineup all seem to come together perfectly to provide a very fitting tribute to the occasion.

The older cars look entirely at home. Looks like a terrific event to be a part of

[AdiSinghV12]

What a lovely thread! Enjoyed reading every bit of it. Pardon my ignorance on 4WD systems and absolute lack of knowledge in the sales rep these days but like Audi has 'different quattros' is it the same with Land Rovers ? For instance would a Range Rover Sport (without twin speed transfer box) would have handled it even better ?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

So, what about the famous sayings about Land Rovers

"If you want to reach the top of the mountain bring a Land Rover, if you want to make it back down bring a Land Cruiser.”

Would totally agree with that man. As appealing as their designs are (especially the Range Rovers) and as good as their on-road / offroad performance is, Land Rover's reliability is just awful. Too many horror stories around.

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

I was pleasantly surprised to read that the Discovery Sport without the low ratio GB did the last 3 kilometers easily.

Technical wizardry - these cars have incredibly talented electronics. IIRC, the gearbox also has a short 1st gear that is *only* used for tough driving conditions. One of the reasons it gets a ZF 9-speeder and not the ubiquitous ZF 8-speed.

[qr20de]

Mad respect for the owners of those vintage Land-Rovers! Absolutely pristine condition. They'll outlast the current generation LRs, 50 years from now!

Beautiful pictures! Thanks so much for sharing!

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by Surprise

What a steep climb with those hairpin bends...Do you have any videos of the uphill drive? How easy/tough would be this climb for a new endy or fortuner. BTW, what the turning radius of these LR, both old and new ones

I have a video of the last 3 kms taken from inside my Thar in 2016 -

https://youtu.be/CylXrG0TdIg

Another video of Sandakphu to Phalut and back -

https://youtu.be/0LD6nHvOaTQ

A Fortuner will be able to go here quite easily.

[sudev]

Nice write up....one of the bucket list places for me to get in my GV

[Unavowed_X9]

Originally Posted by GTO

Would totally agree with that man. As appealing as their designs are (especially the Range Rovers) and as good as their on-road / offroad performance is, Land Rover's reliability is just awful. Too many horror stories around.
...

And if you want to make it to the Top and Back, get a Pajero. Thats what I have discovered under almost all kinds of threatening terrain conditions my work has taken me to!

[ARAY]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Most of the path was either tarmac or concrete, with a barrier on the side. About 25% of it was either mud trails or cobblestones. This is the part where it gets scary because there were no barriers along the road edge bordering a 100-1000 ft drop down the mountain. While driving up, I would regularly encounter a left turn with a dropping trail. Trying to look over the huge hood of the Discovery Sport, I couldn’t see the right-side road edge. I would just see a steep valley beyond the hood. In a Jeep or older Landy, one can just lean out of the window and see the road edge. But that is not possible in an SUV. So, I tended to keep to the left, and the instructor kept telling me to move to the center all the time. I guess once you get used to those roads, one can confidently drive in the middle. But this was my first experience driving an SUV on very narrow Himalayan trails and those sheer drops were downright scary to me.

- You have pretty much summed up the entire terrain + the last 3kms of sandakhu .

https://youtu.be/FmErLKCJVbg

-At 1:06 - thats old school hill assist

Some shots from the final 3 kms to Sandakphu:
a 2D surface cant define the mostrosity of a 3D Himalayan terrain but this one depicts to some extent

Very happy to see the Discovery without a low ratio gear box climb that terrain like a pro.
Beguiling terrains of Himalaya has been captured in a wonderful way.
Keep travelling and sharing such wonderful blogs.

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

I have a video of the last 3 kms taken from inside my Thar in 2016 -

Always a treat to watch these videos.

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Instead, I sat in the passenger seat and watched a local lady driver drive it like a boss. It was her grandfather’s

This is Samantha Dong, the 3rd-generation owner of the Landy she is driving. It was driven by her father and grandfather before her. Her childhood and now her livelihood has been around the old Land Rovers. She probably knew every curve and every tree on this route, and it showed:

Disclaimer: Land Rover invited Team-BHP for the 70th anniversary celebrations. They covered all the travel expenses for this driving event.[/i]

Nicely written report Samurai. Was the Legendary UBS involved in this in anyway? Since it was happening literally in his backyard, I am curious to know, thats all.

Seems to have been a lovely show overall. Good to see the legends still playing in the terrain for which they were built for

Best Regards & Drive Safe

Ram

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by r_nairtvm

Nicely written report Samurai. Was the Legendary UBS involved in this in anyway? Since it was happening literally in his backyard, I am curious to know, thats all.

UBS is the Jeep guru, but these are Land Rovers. I am not aware of any involvement by UBS in this event.

Originally Posted by r_nairtvm

Seems to have been a lovely show overall. Good to see the legends still playing in the terrain for which they were built for

This may be the last year.

[rahulba]

Excellent write up combined with amazing pics of the drive and place. While reading, I was literally glued to the monitor and wish I could have been part of such event and drive those beauties. I feel sad that you couldn't drive an old world charm and realized later that it was easy.

It's good to know that new age LRs are quite a capable cars and are not just built for cities.

Have added this place to my clecklist. Do you think Duster AWD would be good enough to climb up there?

[BlackPearl]

Originally Posted by rahulba

Have added this place to my clecklist. Do you think Duster AWD would be good enough to climb up there?

Duster AWD has already been to Sandakphu. You can check this thread that I had posted in 2016. However it could not go beyond Sandakphu as the underbody started getting hits -
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ndra-thar.html

Here is a link to the YouTube video on the first Duster AWD that made it to Sandakphu via the steep Bengal side. I had posted it earlier on this thread as well. Please note that the last 3 kms from Nepal side is a lot less steep and can be done easily by the Duster.

https://youtu.be/CylXrG0TdIg