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SUV meet-up: Off-road excursion with Thar, Scorpio N, XUV700 & Harrier

22nd November 2022, 20:15 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

What made the water crossing challenging was the ~200 meters of slush that was followed by the water body.

BHPian nerd1200 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

An Offroading Photologue

Last weekend few of us met up for some offroading fun. The lineup included a couple of New Thars, a Scorpio-N 4WD, an XUV7OO AWD and a Harrier. Here’s a video of the fun we had.

Prologue

Ever since ROG_AK got the delivery of his Scorpio-N 4XPLOR and kitted it out with some beefy BFG K02s, our small Scorpio group was rather excited. After all, his was the first car to be delivered in the group. We’ve since been planning an offroad excursion of sorts to pitch it against the mighty Thar and see if it could catch up. Somehow scheduling conflicts kept the idea at bay, until last weekend.

When I realized that our stars had aligned, we quickly created a WAG and drafted up a quick plan. Dropped a text to a few friends and BHPians with offroaders/AWDs to join us – the more the merrier! By the end of it, the lineup of cars looked like this:

Thar D MT (Napoli Black) – soumobakshi
Thar P MT (Rocky Beige) – Turbonath
Scorpio-N D AT 4XPLOR – ROG_AK
XUV7OO D-AT AWD – adneo
Harrier (FWD, with a fairly good TC) – FK, a friend of ours

Another thing to point out before we start is that apart from soumobakshi, all other drivers were beginners when it came to offroading. I’m certain that this encounter helped them understand offroading techniques as well as their respective vehicles much better.

We met up at a small eatery off Mysore Road, caught up over some coffee and proceeded in a convoy to the location.

L to R: adneo, soumobakshi, ROG_AK, Turbonath, (your's truly) Nerd1200

soumobakshi & ROG_AK are up to something.

Obstacle: Slushy track + Water crossing

We started off with a water crossing. It was essentially a large puddle of about a foot-deep water formed during the rains in the week preceding our drive. What made it challenging was the ~200 meters of slush that was followed by the water body.

Turbonath went first and crossed the sections like he was driving on a highway. Similar was the case with ROG_AK’s Scorpio-N – no fret. Although it wasn’t too difficult for the XUV700 either, adneo had to counter-steer a bit more than his BOF counterparts to keep the car moving straight ahead. The AWD’s sudden power transfer to the rear axle can affect the composure ever so slightly in such terrain.