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Excitement Level: Extreme

What happens when you take a seasoned circuit racer and put him behind the wheel of the mighty MG Gloster on an off-road trail? A whole lot of action, as it turns out.

Published On Oct 07, 2024 02:23:00 PM

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There’s a lot that manufacturers do to put a car through its paces while it’s being developed. Running the engine non-stop on a test bench for hours on end, driving on torture tracks that rattle prototypes to destruction, and blasting the car with all sorts of weather conditions in a laboratory, just to name a few. Once it’s ready and leaves the showroom, though, it is seldom pushed to its limits. School runs, office commutes and grocery shopping are the most frequent use cases, and in these scenarios, a formidable SUV like the MG Gloster doesn’t even break a sweat. Way up in the mountains above Manali, though, we broke away from the mundane and decided to push a Gloster to its limits. And to find out how exactly we managed this, you need to look no further than the man behind the wheel.

Seasoned racing driver and co-founder of the Indian Racing League, Armaan Ebrahim, landed in Himachal Pradesh brimming with enthusiasm. And why wouldn’t he? With 215.5hp and nearly 500Nm at his disposal from the first-in-class twin-turbo 2.0-litre diesel engine under the hood, he was keen to see what the Gloster could do. But even by the already extreme standards of Armaan and the Gloster, the itinerary for the day was packed with adrenaline. You see, Armaan’s area of expertise lies on the racetrack, where he tears it up in single-seater formula cars on pristine tarmac. Today, he’d be entering the Gloster’s world, getting down and dirty, using all that horsepower to kick up some mud going off-roading instead.

A quick turn of the terrain mode selector and you can take on sand, snow, mud and rocks at will.

Finding an extremely capable companion in the Gloster promptly helped him settle into a rhythm, though. A quick turn of the terrain mode selector into Mud, and he was all set to dive in, quite literally. Though, if the terrain or time of year were different, he could just have easily slotted into Snow, Sand or Rock instead. On the slushy, mucky dirt trails climbing up the surrounding mountains, he was able to use the precise steering and healthy dose of torque to slide the car around, tightening his line up the hairpin bends and carving a path up to the summit. His mastery behind the wheel even in these off-road conditions didn’t surprise me as I marvelled from the passenger seat – he is a professional racing driver, after all. But it certainly did intrigue me.

“So how much racetrack technique can you transfer to off-roading and vice versa?” I asked. While still sawing at the wheel to catch rear-end slides, he found the bandwidth to respond, “Well, quite a lot. The basic principles and the lines you choose through a corner are fairly similar, so I can apply some of my racetrack experience, with a bit of adaptation, of course. And driving off-road, catching these rear-end slides, conversely helps me with car control when I have low-grip conditions on track.”

Clambering through slushy low-grip patches is child's play with the intelligent 4WD system.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the mighty Gloster is a far cry from the sort of ground-hugging formula cars he’s used to driving. But that doesn’t stop him from appreciating its unique strengths. Particularly impressive to him is how the intelligent 4WD system manages to dish up a steady supply of traction despite the slippery conditions we’re driving on. “I thought we’d just be spinning up and getting stuck quite a bit, especially since the car is still on its stock road tyres, but it’s amazing how the Gloster distributes its torque to maintain forward momentum.”

The Inside Story

Another thing the Gloster affords Armaan, which his racecars don’t, is a very well-appointed and luxurious cabin. On the outside, there’s the sound of tyres slipping and screeching on the dirt trail, muck flying through the air and the roar of the engine as it hauls the Gloster up the mountainside. But inside the cabin, Armaan and I are cocooned in a world of comfort. Surrounded by premium leather upholstery and soft-touch materials, sat in supremely cosy massage seats, it’s a far cry from the rough and tumble world that’s unfolding outside.

Rough conditions outside but the Gloster's cabin cocooned us in comfort.

Splashing through streams and scampering through ruts, it’s impossible for me to focus my vision on the crisp, high-resolution 12.3-inch infotainment screen. But inspecting it later while stopped, I find that everything from on-board navigation to car settings to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is packed into this display. And there’s yet more on the 8-inch multi-information display that Armaan sees when he drives. This is where you can see all the ADAS functions in action, including things like adaptive cruise control with automatic emergency braking, blind-spot detection, lane change assist and even automatic parking assist. But for now, back to our blast on the mountain trails.

About half an hour into our drive, with a smile still plastered across his face, Armaan brings the pace down a notch. Not because the engine is out of breath. Oh no. Even in this rarified mountain air, it’s continuing to serve up neck-straining acceleration. The slowdown is because of the large rocks that suddenly appear on the path ahead. “Do you think we’ll manage?” I ask with hesitation. Armaan doesn’t seem to be fazed by the challenge, and he soon reveals why. “19-inch wheels and 210mm of ground clearance? We’ll be perfectly alright.”

As it turned out, I had no reason to be worried. With some precise placement and careful driving, the Gloster quite easily made it over the rocks, and even when we did need to stop and plan a path ahead, the hill hold control made it effortless to set off again. Very soon, the rock field was cleared and the pace was back to heart-racing levels.

By the end of the day, the trail was conquered, the car was caked in mud (as any good SUV should be), and Armaan and I were both thoroughly impressed. Him with the Gloster’s effortless capability, and me with his ability to adapt to the low-grip world of off-road driving. Win-win!

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