My Land Rover Experience Day

Yesterday I did the Land Rover Experience half day with my wife in Skipton, North Yorkshire in an Evoque SD4 Diesel and have to say we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Just being able to see first-hand what our car can do has found a new level of respect we never knew existed. We were totally blown away to be truthful by its capabilities and the instructor was great, with some of terrain we encountered and your thinking 'absolutely no way we can either get up or go down controlled' was awesome. It was absolutely pishing it down, a total washout which in hindsight made me have more respect at its capabilities and being a first timer of off-roading made it even more pleasing. My wife even had a good drive and though apprehensive at first really grew into it. The HDC is awesome, what a great piece of technology and very counter-intuitive, being told to leave your feet away from the pedals and let the car go down a VERY steep hill with mud, loose rocks and streaming water is exhilarating to say the least..!!

Instructor was very informative and knew his stuff and was vell versed in the Evoque talking us through all the makeup of the Terrain Response systems. He saw us drive in with our Evoque so we didn’t do an extended road drive but enough to show us the different settings on road and their effect on the car. Sand setting when driving on a normal road is quite manic with throttle response being almost instant then moving to Mud & Ruts being positively lethargic by comparison but altogether a great learning experience.

It’s made me look to book another session but this time taking my pops.. Probably make him finally sell his Jeep 4x4 and spend some pennies on an Evoque..!!

If you haven’t done anything like this before much like myself and have an Evoque it’s well worth doing it, we both agree it kind of makes us realise its much much more than just a car or SUV or whatever.

I did it at skipton on tuesday in an si4, the off road bit was awesome but the hour spent driving on road was utterly pointless.

Hi Sit,

Just wondering if the LR instructor said anything about the use of sand setting on normal roads? bc i've brought this up on the forum and other members have advised against it.

Thanks

(24-06-2012 03:23am)crimson_flames Wrote:  Hi Sit,

Just wondering if the LR instructor said anything about the use of sand setting on normal roads? bc i've brought this up on the forum and other members have advised against it.

Thanks

Well he didn't say you can't drive around with Sand setting on all the time. He joked that if you want a fast getaway at the lights then Sand mode is better than S mode, if you have an auto box. I'm not the gospel on it, far from it but I’m more inclined to use it on the road now more than i ever was. I picked up that the TRS system isn't just only limited to off-road as i thought and to be honest i was pretty apprehensive about even flicking through the modes..! but let’s say he didn't detract from not using them when you see fit... if that makes sense i.e. it won't feck your car.

It was apparent that the different modes had a significant effect on the car as a whole, but then maybe I’m naïve as I’ve never even driven this type of vehicle before.!

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(24-06-2012 12:40am)ED209 Wrote:  I did it at skipton on tuesday in an si4, the off road bit was awesome but the hour spent driving on road was utterly pointless.

To be honest Ed i think the fact he saw us pull up in an Evoque and we asked for the SD4 Diesel auto he said i won't take you through the long road drive. The short drive going through the modes was sufficient and my wife also drove, think it was about 30 mins in total.

I wasnt talking about your drive though i was talking about mine, perhaps he saw us pull up in an astra gtc and thought I was telling lies about having an evoque? I got the impression that the half day is really aimed at people who they are trying to sell cars to, not people who actually own one already.

(25-06-2012 10:01am)ED209 Wrote:  ...I got the impression that the half day is really aimed at people who they are trying to sell cars to, not people who actually own one already.

That's exactly what they are aimed for...

When I did my LR Exp 1/2 day for my Disco 4 the instructor told me that the idea was to promote the vehicles to potential buyers. He saw my Disco and said we could ignore the tarmac bit since I had the vehicle already.

I'm doing another 1/2 day in the Evoque in July, hopefully I'll avoid the tarmac section there too!