Off road in China

During the Christmas holiday, I took my Evoque to a long trip in China from Hong Kong to the border of Vietnam. I was in a group of 16 Land Rovers - Defender, Disco and FFRR (including one from 1971). Mine was the only Evoque in the convoy. It was a very interesting trip to see the rural China, look across the border seeing Vietnam villages, and drive thru some unpaved highways.
   
One of the highlights was a visit to the Land Rover Experience Centre in Guangdong. I took a course there on a Disco and a FFRR. I wanted to use my Evoque but was advised that it didn't have enough ground clearance for some of the terrains. Nevertheless, it was my first real off roading. I was very excited. The Terrain Response system proved to be really capable.

I thought the day was interesting enough but then I was told the group will have a drive thru a bamboo jungle at night. I sensed there may be some risk for the Evoque, the way they asked whether I wanted to join. Since I went all the way there, I thought why not? When I got to the beginning of the trial, I though 'Oh shxt!'. The grass was so deep in some spots that I couldn't even see the car in front, not to say the trial. I had all my lights on and I still couldn't see well enough. The most challenging thing for Evoque is the ground clearance. I had to avoid deep ruts or be very careful going thru them when they couldn't be avoid. At the end, it was a tense but really fun 90 min ride thru the jungle. A few people driving Defenders were amazed by Evoque's capability.

I have cut a short video but it was really dark so there wasn't much to see...




BTW, I've a plan to bring my Evoque to UK in summer. There LR Club here is planning a special event with UK as one of the stop. I may see some of you there.

Well done, wife would have killed me!!

Doesn't sound like you had to get winched out! Pretty capable in my book. I bet if you had a spotter you would have no problems with the bigger ruts.

The trick with both Freelander and Evoque is to try to straddle ruts if possible and drive offset from the track. The great thing with Evoque and Freelander is that when the going gets soft and you have the right tyres both cars can seriously embarrass their bigger brothers that are a bit portly and weighty, even with their low range gears.

The drive from HK to Vietnam seems to be quite a popular one as I remember some of the RRS boys in the early days of RRS doing the same run in their Supercharged RRS's. well done for having a go. Unfortunately I cannot view the video as YouTube is blocked in our satellite system.

(04-01-2013 05:49pm)Stadt Panzer Wrote:  Well done, wife would have killed me!!

Wife was in the car and she was between worrying and enjoying...

(05-01-2013 09:53am)XFullFatTim Wrote:  The trick with both Freelander and Evoque is to try to straddle ruts if possible and drive offset from the track. The great thing with Evoque and Freelander is that when the going gets soft and you have the right tyres both cars can seriously embarrass their bigger brothers that are a bit portly and weighty, even with their low range gears.

The drive from HK to Vietnam seems to be quite a popular one as I remember some of the RRS boys in the early days of RRS doing the same run in their Supercharged RRS's. well done for having a go. Unfortunately I cannot view the video as YouTube is blocked in our satellite system.

That was the tip I got as well. I tried to straddle the ruts but it wasn't always possible with bamboos on both side. I had only road tires on. When it dropped into some of the deep ruts, it was very difficult to climb back up some slippery ridge. I could have the steering in full lock and it still inched ahead following the ruts.

I'm sure the drive to Vietnam was more interesting back then. China is doing an excellent job with infrastructure. There were a lot of new and smooth highways till we got close to the border.

Looks like a really nice trail - well done for persevering with the bRR, although I have a D4 I've driven the bRR several time on and off road and am always impressed at the way it behaves no matter what you throw at it.

Pug you can definitely vote yes in my offroad poll nice work. Tough to climb rut walls once your in there hey, just have to find the right spot. Did you have high beams and fogs on? Looks like just normal lights.

I turned on every light I could turn on but it was still very dark!