CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN

In order to demonstrate the Grass, Gravel, Snow Terrain Response® setting on the new Range Rover Evoque we travelled to British Columbia.  Finding grass and gravel is easy but finding snow in North America in late September is more of a challenge, writes Bob Burns, Events manager, Land Rover North America.

The chance of finding snow was one of the reasons we picked Vancouver in British Columbia for the North American media introduction of the 2012 Range Rover Evoque. At roughly six thousand feet up Blackcomb Mountain and a two‑hour drive north of Vancouver, there’s a good chance you’ll find slippery fresh powder. Of course, a drive around Vancouver’s cool city and surrounding neighborhoods seemed a natural fit as well for the innovative modern SUV.

The drive north on the Sea‑to‑Sky Highway to the ski resort of Whistler is always breathtaking. Driving it is like being inside an automotive commercial: long curvy roads, majestic mountains, blue sky, etc.  At the base of the adjacent Blackcomb Mountain, scene of many of the 2010 Winter Olympics activities, we turned off the pavement and on to the rough, rarely used rutted service roads that snake their way seven and a half miles to the 7^th Heaven ski area close to the top of the mountain.  Other than this Land Rover adventure, the only public way to the top of that ski mountain is by way of helicopter, ski lift, ATV or guided off road tour: all considerably less accommodating than the Range Rover Evoque with leather seats and a Meridian® audio system.

The Mud and Ruts setting on the Terrain Response® system kept the wheels churning through the mud that covered many of the sections of the gnarled service road. But with the Range Rover Evoque vehicle’s Haldex® electronically controlled center, which couples distributing power between the front and rear axles, getting traction was never a problem.

Past 6,000 feet, the route got considerably steeper and the soft rain turned to sleet and then snow, and the snow itself went from a light dusting to almost a foot deep (in Winter, there is more than 25ft of base snow at this level). This is what we had climbed the mountain to find.  Selecting the Grass, Gravel, Snow setting completely changes the dynamics of the vehicle. In snow, you don’t want lots of power. The goal is to prevent wheelspin at all cost and maintain traction.

The Grass, Gravel, Snow program softens the throttle response and provides quicker gear shifts to stay out of the meat of the torque curve. Traction control is very aggressive here. It’s as if the entire four wheel‑drive system is saying ‘I’m going to do everything I can to avoid wheelspin because we are on such a slippery surface’.

All our vehicles ploughed their way through the snow to reach 7^th Heaven. It was a great test of the capability and versatility of this remarkable compact vehicle. 

As we go to market with the Range Rover Evoque this month, it is important for our customers, 80 percent of which we expect could be new to the brand, to know how these systems work and what they can do for you. Climbing the mountains of Whistler and Blackcomb were certainly a good first step in getting that information out.