Australia (Victorian 4WD Show) 19 Feb

[Stu_Barnes]

If you're going let people know, if you don't know anything about this event and think that you should have been notified, then tell INEOS Automotive..........

 

[SirJimR]

I'll be trying to get along to this one! Looks like the show's organizers have done a few posts & it'll be a big drawcard for them.

 

[Davman]

The Victorian 4WD show is actually run by the Land Rovers Owners club I believe.
That should be a big success for INEOS - although the course at Lardner park is weak as piss.

 

[SirJimR]

The Victorian 4WD show is actually run by the Land Rovers Owners club I believe.
That should be a big success for INEOS - although the course at Lardner park is weak as piss.

The track is alright from memory, nothing crazy. But to be fair, they wouldn't want the car doing a 10/10 double diamond difficulty track all day with members of the general public in it. Could imagine it'd get abused pretty badly based on the way I saw some customers driving at their event I attended there last year

 

[cmurray]

The Victorian 4WD show is actually run by the Land Rovers Owners club I believe.

That should be a big success for INEOS - although the course at Lardner park is weak as piss.

Yes the Land Rover Owners Club of Victoria has been running the Victorian 4WD show for over 40 years. It moved to Lardner Park in 2018, due to infrastructure issues at it's old location in Wandin. I've been involved with the 4WD track for the show since 1995, most of that time as a volunteer driver who took passengers around the track. Between 2013 and 2020, I was in charge of the 4WD track for the show, so I'm mainly responsible for the layout at Lardner Park.
Given the limited space, I think that the track is not too bad, as it gives passengers who are new to 4 wheel driving a reasonable introduction. It allows for a reasonable comparison between different vehicles. I found over the years, if an obstacle is too difficult, people just drove around it. Most of the cars being driven, are owned by the driver, so they don't want to damage their car. It's very rare that a manufacturer puts a vehicle on the track. We also needed to consider how the track would stand up to having a couple of hundred cars drive over it, within the 7 hours that it is open.
If the track gets too wet, we run into issues. At the last show we ran in 2020, I had to recover a twin locked 70 series troopy, as it managed to sink down and bottom out on one of the rocks we placed on the track.

I'll be helping to setup the track on Saturday and I think I'll be in the middle of the track most of Sunday keeping an eye on how things are going and to do any recoveries, if they are required.
That being said, I am under strict instructions from my wife to get video from inside and outside of the Grenadier doing a complete lap of the track.

Craig Murray

 

[Stu_Barnes]

It’s great that the boss has her eye on the prize @cmurray if mine could only be as enthusiastic….

 

[Davman]

Sorry gents, I was referring to the weakness of the track at Lardner Park when we had the Ineos drive day there - not to any track that you build for your show.

 

[cmurray]

Sorry gents, I was referring to the weakness of the track at Lardner Park when we had the Ineos drive day there - not to any track that you build for your show.

No worries Dave. Due to being so wet at the drive day, there wasn't much they could do, as it gets quite boggy in that area. It was a lot better than the ride day at Warragul in 2020, that was definitely piss weak.

 

[Davman]

No worries Dave. Due to being so wet at the drive day, there wasn't much they could do, as it gets quite boggy in that area. It was a lot better than the ride day at Warragul in 2020, that was definitely piss weak.

Hi Craig, hope you and all of your club and show attendees had a great day. So how was the Grenadier received amongst the Land Rover guys today?

 

[Beesem]

I went to the show. I can confirm that there was a lot of interest at the Ineos stand. The public queue for the 4wd circuit was long - whether they were all queuing to try the Grenadier I'm not sure, but I'm betting a fair few were.

 

[cmurray]

Hi Craig, hope you and all of your club and show attendees had a great day. So how was the Grenadier received amongst the Land Rover guys today?

Hello Dave,
I'm not sure how much interest in the Grenadier there was from Land Rover club members. I didn't spend all day at the track, as I ended up spending a couple of hours assisting the guy that was running the demonstration area. I did see a few members going for a ride in the Grenadier, but I was surprised there weren't more that wanted to go for a ride in it. That being said, I do know there are a couple of other members with orders.

I think that there was quite a bit of interest in the Grenadier at the show from the general public. The couple of times I walked past their stand, it was quite busy. Also for taking people for a ride around the 4WD track, they were quite busy. I know that the Land Rover club took just over 300 people around the track for the whole day. Speaking with the Ineos people at the end of the day, they lost track around lunch time, but at that point, they'd taken over 100 people and by the end of the day, nearly every one was queueing up to go in the Grenadier.

I was quite lucky as on Saturday while we were setting up the track, the Ineos team let me drive the Grenadier around the track, so I was able to make a direct comparison to my RFSV Perentie. It actually rode pretty similar to the Perentie, which is a good thing. I only took one member of the public around in the Perentie and he commented on how good the ride was! The main difference I noticed was how much lower it was, especially the front and rear protection plates. The only other vehicles that were going around were a couple of Defender 110's, a Disco 1 and Disco 2, both on 33"s, a Disco 4, as well as another 4x4 and 6x6 Perentie. Of all of those vehicles, the only one that was bottoming out was the Grenadier. The main thing that seemed to be bottoming out was the rear protection plate, so I think people's concerns regarding the lack of clearance are well founded.

I successfully completed all of the tasks my wife set me, so I'll try to sort out some video to upload in the next few days, the mean time, here's a photo of the Grenadier in the water crossing at the end of the day.



Regards
Craig Murray

 

[HayesBT]

Hello Dave,
I'm not sure how much interest in the Grenadier there was from Land Rover club members. I didn't spend all day at the track, as I ended up spending a couple of hours assisting the guy that was running the demonstration area. I did see a few members going for a ride in the Grenadier, but I was surprised there weren't more that wanted to go for a ride in it. That being said, I do know there are a couple of other members with orders.

I think that there was quite a bit of interest in the Grenadier at the show from the general public. The couple of times I walked past their stand, it was quite busy. Also for taking people for a ride around the 4WD track, they were quite busy. I know that the Land Rover club took just over 300 people around the track for the whole day. Speaking with the Ineos people at the end of the day, they lost track around lunch time, but at that point, they'd taken over 100 people and by the end of the day, nearly every one was queueing up to go in the Grenadier.

I was quite lucky as on Saturday while we were setting up the track, the Ineos team let me drive the Grenadier around the track, so I was able to make a direct comparison to my RFSV Perentie. It actually rode pretty similar to the Perentie, which is a good thing. I only took one member of the public around in the Perentie and he commented on how good the ride was! The main difference I noticed was how much lower it was, especially the front and rear protection plates. The only other vehicles that were going around were a couple of Defender 110's, a Disco 1 and Disco 2, both on 33"s, a Disco 4, as well as another 4x4 and 6x6 Perentie. Of all of those vehicles, the only one that was bottoming out was the Grenadier. The main thing that seemed to be bottoming out was the rear protection plate, so I think people's concerns regarding the lack of clearance are well founded.

I successfully completed all of the tasks my wife set me, so I'll try to sort out some video to upload in the next few days, the mean time, here's a photo of the Grenadier in the water crossing at the end of the day.

View attachment 7803803

Regards
Craig Murray

Great photo!

 

[cmurray]

Hello All,
as promised, here is a video of the Grenadier going around the track at the show.

The in car footage is from Saturday morning whilst we were setting up and the external shots were from Sunday afternoon.

Regards
Craig Murray

 

[Stu_Barnes]

This event thread has run its course.

Closed.