Land Rover Above and Beyond Tour: Aamby Valley

Land Rover India showcased the off-roading capabilities of its range today with the Above and Beyond Tour held in Aamby Valley, Lonavala. Similar off-roading experiences have been held all over the world for 38 years now. Land Rover India has been organising these events in India since 2013. The company organizes this drive to provide the participants with an opportunity to drive the Land Rover Discovery Sport and the Range Rover Evoque over challenging terrain under the guidance of expert off-road instructors.

Check how we celebrated 70 years of Land Rover here

The Above and Beyond Tour focuses on providing a hands-on experience at the technologies used in Land Rover cars which include hill descent control, air suspension, traction control, high and low range, terrain response and all-terrain progress control. This reporter got behind the wheel of the Range Rover Evoque. The sloping roofline and the overall silhouette of the SUV might make you think twice about taking taking the baby Rangie off-road but rest assured, as the Range Rover Evoque is more than capable as we found out during the course of an hour and a half of off-road driving.

Mr. Ashish Gupta from Cougar Motorsports was on hand to brief us about the track and general precautions that we were supposed to take. He also walked us through the suite of off-road tech present on the vehicles. All the Land Rover Vehicles come equipped with various driving modes including – Grass/Gravel/Snow, Mud & Ruts, Sand and General. These driving modes adjust the throttle response and gear-shifts of the vehicle according to the terrain and help the SUV to gain better traction and control. Other technologies include Hill Descent Control and All Terrain Progress Control – technologies that allowed even an off-road amateur like me to complete the course with no major incidents.

The track that we were driving on was very technical and was littered with huge rocks with a couple of water crossings and ascents and descents along with side inclines. The Range Rover Evoque with its incredible off-road tech made the otherwise hair-raising experience a fun one. We were asked by the trainers to trust the car and mostly just concentrate on steering the baby SUV and providing constant throttle inputs. That’s all. It was commendable how the Land Rovers performed. Land Rover should be applauded for conducting such events.