Ok, I'm not Jeremy Clarkson, these weren't chariots of fire and this is not a professional car review. But I was driving some very hi-tech 4x4 vehicles over some laughably dangerous off-road terrain in a farmer's field, along disused railway paths and through some dark and dingy woods. It was all part of the Mitsubishi Motors 4x4 Day in Marlborough.
My friend and media production company owner Christopher Francis invited me to Mitsubishi's corporate public relations day — and what a day it was. We arrived in good time fora 9.30am kick off and after welcome refreshments in the corporate hospitality tent we were introduced to the off-road driving instructors who showed us how to handle the three 4x4 vehicles before setting off.
I first got to drive the top of the range £34,000 Shogun which is billed as being strong, quiet, safe and has the ability to go anywhere and do anything. Well, this was the first ever 4x4 I had ever driven and as I was used to driving only on tarmac, rather than ploughing through grass and mud, I was a little overwhelmed at the thought of driving up a 45 degree steep dirt bank and down the other side again. But the car did it — without much skill on my part. Amazingly I didn't need to apply the brakes going down the very steep mud hill as the engine automatically slowed the descending car down to a crawl.
The Shogun was a marvel of technology. It flawlessly handled multiple 12 inch pot holes, even ones staggered in left, right, left right zig-zag formation. This meant that one or other of the back two wheels kept lifting up into the air when a front wheel bottomed in a pot hole.
Then I drove (slowly) with the right two wheels up a 40% slope - so car and occupants were tipped over to the left at a very sharp angle!
I then repeated the course, missing out the most aggressive obstacles, in the 7-seat Outlander - a Sports Utility Vehicle billed as having the lowest emissions of any seven seat SUV and fuel consumption of over 40 mpg.It spends the majority of its time in 2 wheel drive, but has the ability to switch to 4 wheel drive when required. I found this was harder to drive off-road, owing to it not being so high off the ground, however for a mainly on-the-road car it was quite surprising what it could do off-the-road.
Lastly I drove the top-end L200, described as having a new steering gear and drive-train packed into a spacious, maneuverable, comfortable, car-like pick-up body. The car had full off-road capabilities, like the Shogun but at a more affordable price.
What I found amazing about this car was the fact that it was almost impossible to stall it going up the steepest hills. I just had to point it at the hill and take my feet of both pedals and point it at the hill. As it started to go up the hill, the engine speed increased causing it to crawl up the hill with no driver intervention.
We returned to the hospitality tent at midday for a lovely buffet lunch before being driven back home in Christopher's own company car - yes you guessed it - a Shogun!
We both agreed it had been a fantastic morning and the most exciting motoring experience under 5 miles per hour that we had ever enjoyed.
