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USA Grenadier Experience (Atlanta) 05-06 April

Stu_Barnes

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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..........

EVENT DETAILS​

Location: Iron Mountain Resort, 116 Iron Mountain Parkway, Dahlonega, GA 30533

INEOS_GLANUSK_007__1_.jpg


BE THE FIRST TO EXPERIENCE THE INEOS GRENADIER.
The Grenadier is set for one of its toughest challenges yet: your up-close personal inspection. As a close follower of the Grenadier story, we want to give you the opportunity to experience the PTO2 Prototype first-hand.
A 4X4 BUILT ON PURPOSE. ON TEST.
The day you've been waiting for. The one where you get behind the wheel of a Grenadier and drive it yourself. You'll have one of our pro drivers next to you to show you around and answer any questions you have.
If you miss out on this event, don’t worry, we’ll be holding more across the US and Canada in the coming months.
For any questions regarding event bookings, please contact eventsamericas@ineosgrenadier.com
 

Loc Nar

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I'm confirmed for 10:30 a.m. on April 6 and am looking forward to it! From their website and YouTube videos, Iron Mountain Resort looks like it has plenty of red clay and mud to go around. Should be fun.
 
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I'm just here to again say that ineos could have done a better job of scheduling this event. A weekend would be appropriate for the size of the region, not to mention they scheduled it smack dab in the middle of when most schools in Georgia are out for spring break. Vacation plans means I (and others I'm sure) won't even be in the state. Lame.
 
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I signed up two days ago and have yet to hear anything back confirming my time. Is this normal? I even emailed their email address and nothing so far.
 
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I signed up the day I got the email, for the 6th 2:00 pm, I remember getting a confirmation message from the website but nothing else?
How did you get your confirmation was it a separate email? I am showing up we will see.
 
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I signed up the day I got the email, for the 6th 2:00 pm, I remember getting a confirmation message from the website but nothing else?
How did you get your confirmation was it a separate email? I am showing up we will see.
The only confirmation I got was the day before confirming the details. So a bit sloppy but the test drive was worth it. Would have loved to have driven it on asphalt but wasn't meant to be since these are prototypes.

Actually legally speaking, they could allow us to drive them on roads with manufacturer plates. That's the whole point of those plates. The problem is a liability one - what if it crashes without functioning airbags.
 
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The only confirmation I got was the day before confirming the details. So a bit sloppy but the test drive was worth it. Would have loved to have driven it on asphalt but wasn't meant to be since these are prototypes.

Actually legally speaking, they could allow us to drive them on roads with manufacturer plates. That's the whole point of those plates. The problem is a liability one - what if it crashes without functioning airbags.
I never got a confirmation I hopped in my car drove 3 hrs for my 2 pm they didn’t have my reservation but they took care of me got me in one. The course was great to show the off road capabilities, but the rig sweet mother the suspension on that thing was anything but amazing. The engine & transmission pairing was great my daily driver is a MT Fj so automatics are not in my wheelhouse. I was more than impressed with the engineering of critical elements I look forward to December.
 

Loc Nar

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I went yesterday. Well organized - good information provided. I drove the Brittannia Blue Trialmaster. We were in low center diff locked from start to finish. It took about a minute for me to get used to the power curve, having just finished driving an Acura MDX. I saw someone somewhere else say the accelerator had a long take up and then bit, and experienced some of that. I quickly got used to it.

The vehicle just nom-nom-nommed everything in front of it with surefooted confident handling. It did not break a sweat. We had a good opportunity to test the hill descent control and it was fantastic. It felt like riding a Clydesdale down a steep incline. It just clopped on down slow and steady. Muddy ruts were also a cake walk. We did not cross any significant water features. We had a couple opportunities to do so, but that was not part of the course. Mildly disappointing. My instructor told me the entire course could be done with engine braking alone.

It was also great to see all of the colors first hand. My impression that Brittannia Blue was just too darn dark for me was confirmed in spades. In the shade, it was way more black than blue. Should have called it Midnight Blue. My two favorites were the Scottish White and Sela Green. Magic Mushroom used to be in my top three, but I just did not like it as much as the White and Green. I will likely end up going with the White because of the advantages in the hot climate of the deep South and because it will look better than the green with trail scars. I intend to use this vehicle for overlanding.

Good information obtained during the event:

The main speaker (I think his name is Wes) was the same guy seen in other videos of this event who was the industry car guy contracted by Ineos. Dude knows his stuff backwards and forwards and I asked a lot of questions. Could not stump him. Here is what I learned:

Confirmation pricing will come out for the U.S. market on May 17, and a couple weeks or so will be provided thereafter for configuring and ordering.

A second deposit will NOT be required for reservation holders to place their order. He explained that the rationale for this is that it would be too complicated for Ineos to route cash from the deposit to the appropriate dealer, since the dealer network will not likely be fully sorted by then. Not sure I understood that, but that's what I took from what he said. Perhaps I misunderstood the rationale.

There will not be an opportunity for U.S. reservation holders to do any on-road driving of the Grenadier before placing an order. The explanation was that they will not have sufficient inventory of vehicles qualified to operate on U.S. roads by then. The current plan is to have the opportunity for on-road driving at some point over the summer at dealers.

The U.S. market will get the steel bumper, and the reason for why the U.S. market will not be able to have the bull bar installed at the factory is because they have not crash tested it with the bull bar. The bar can be purchased and installed at the dealer level and should be the same as the Australian one - or one very much like it. He also said he expects the Grenadier to receive a 5 star crash rating. It will not receive a 5+ star rating because it does not have some of the bells and whistles - such as cameras needed to reach that rating. The steel bumper can also hold 300 lbs.

He said the doors could hold 80 lbs.

The windshield wiper issue - not reaching the corners as well as some other vehicles is due to the relatively short height and flat aspect of the windshield.

There is room for a 12 gallon underbody auxiliary gas tank. It will have to be an aftermarket feature, but he said it should be straightforward to install and hook up to a switch panel control. He mentioned a company out west that does this sort of thing. Perhaps somewhere in Oregon?

Installing 33 inch tires will not require any modification to the vehicle. However, he also cautioned that the 33's should not be more than a 10 lbs. difference in weight from the existing tires, because otherwise the ABS system may not perform properly. So, if looking to fit tires with a more than 10 lbs. difference, some modification would likely be required. He also said a 33 inch tire will fit on the rear tire rack without impeding the operation of the side door.

He also talked about the five year 60,000 warranty and said there was a 12 year warranty on the paint. I learned from my instructor driver this covered corrosion and sun damage.

I also learned from my instructor that the likely rationale for why Ineos did not go with lithium for the second battery was simply due to cost/scale. It's understandably a lot cheaper to buy more of the same battery. He certainly preferred Lithium for a second battery due to the weight savings and longer use power provided.

Finally, another exciting thing I learned (from a source that will not be identified) is that Goose Gear was at one of these recent events and took detailed measurements of the interior to construct a drawer system that will make a flat deck to the folded down rear seats PLUS a rear seat delete kit!
 
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jrchrds

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Finally, another exciting thing I learned (from a source that will not be identified) is that Goose Gear was at one of these recent events and took detailed measurements of the interior to construct a drawer system that will make a flat deck to the folded down rear seats PLUS a rear seat delete kit!

This is great news. I wasn't looking forward to having to do it myself. I'll be looking for the rear seat delete kit.
 
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Any drawings and dimensions are available from Ineos for the aftermarket vendors I was told yesterday
 

grenadierguy

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I went yesterday. Well organized - good information provided. I drove the Brittannia Blue Trialmaster. We were in low center diff locked from start to finish. It took about a minute for me to get used to the power curve, having just finished driving an Acura MDX. I saw someone somewhere else say the accelerator had a long take up and then bit, and experienced some of that. I quickly got used to it.

The vehicle just nom-nom-nommed everything in front of it with surefooted confident handling. It did not break a sweat. We had a good opportunity to test the hill descent control and it was fantastic. It felt like riding a Clydesdale down a steep incline. It just clopped on down slow and steady. Muddy ruts were also a cake walk. We did not cross any significant water features. We had a couple opportunities to do so, but that was not part of the course. Mildly disappointing. My instructor told me the entire course could be done with engine braking alone.

It was also great to see all of the colors first hand. My impression that Brittannia Blue was just too darn dark for me was confirmed in spades. In the shade, it was way more black than blue. Should have called it Midnight Blue. My two favorites were the Scottish White and Sela Green. Magic Mushroom used to be in my top three, but I just did not like it as much as the White and Green. I will likely end up going with the White because of the advantages in the hot climate of the deep South and because it will look better than the green with trail scars. I intend to use this vehicle for overlanding.

Good information obtained during the event:

The main speaker (I think his name is Wes) was the same guy seen in other videos of this event who was the industry car guy contracted by Ineos for this event. Dude knows his stuff backwards and forwards and I asked a lot of questions. Could not stump him. Here is what I learned:

Confirmation pricing will come out for the U.S. market on May 17, and a couple weeks or so will be provided thereafter for configuring and ordering.

A second deposit will NOT be required for reservation holders to place their order. He explained that the rationale for this is that it would be too complicated for Ineos to route cash from the deposit to the appropriate dealer, since the dealer network will not likely be fully sorted by then. Not sure I understood that, but that's what I took from what he said. Perhaps I misunderstood the rationale.

There will not be an opportunity for U.S. reservation holders to do any on-road driving of the Grenadier before placing an order. The explanation was that they will not have sufficient inventory of vehicles qualified to operate on U.S. roads by then. The current plan is to have the opportunity for on-road driving at some point over the summer at dealers.

The U.S. market will get the steel bumper, and the reason for why the U.S. market will not be able to have the bull bar installed at the factory is because they have not crash tested it with the bull bar. The bar can be purchased and installed at the dealer level and should be the same as the Australian one - or one very much like it. He also said he expects the Grenadier to receive a 5 star crash rating. It will not receive a 5+ star rating because it does not have some of the bells and whistles - such as cameras needed to reach that rating. The steel bumper can also hold 300 lbs.

He said the doors could hold 80 lbs.

The windshield wiper issue - not reaching the corners as well as some other vehicles is due to the relatively short height and flat aspect of the windshield.

There is room for a 12 gallon underbody auxiliary gas tank. It will have to be an aftermarket feature, but he said it should be straightforward to install and hook up to a switch panel control. He mentioned a company out west that does this sort of thing. Perhaps somewhere in Oregon?

Installing 33 inch tires will not require any modification to the vehicle. However, he also cautioned that the 33's should not be more than a 10 lbs. difference in weight from the existing tires, because otherwise the ABS system may not perform properly. So, if looking to fit tires with a more than 10 lbs. difference, some modification would likely be required. He also said a 33 inch tire will fit on the rear tire rack without impeding the operation of the side door.

He also talked about the five year 60,000 warranty and said there was a 12 year warranty on the paint. I learned from my instructor driver this covered corrosion and sun damage.

I also learned from my instructor that the likely rationale for why Ineos did not go with lithium for the second battery was simply due to cost/scale. It's understandably a lot cheaper to buy more of the same battery. He certainly preferred Lithium for a second battery due to the weight savings and longer use power provided.

Finally, another exciting thing I learned (from a source that will not be identified) is that Goose Gear was at one of these recent events and took detailed measurements of the interior to construct a drawer system that will make a flat deck to the folded down rear seats PLUS a rear seat delete kit!
Thanks for the great write up and for sharing. That's more information than I learned at my test drive.
 

jrchrds

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How was it???
Loc Nar posted some good info I won't reiterate. They were short some folks at the 9AM time slot, so my wife and I both got to drive our own vehicles, instead of swapping mid drive. We had different professional driver interactions, as she got the only girl coach and they interfaced very well, and I got a guy with a very similar military history to myself and we ended up talking story during the drive, so I missed some vehicle details, but it didn't hurt my feelings.
Coming from a 1st gen manual Tacoma Xtra Cab that rides like a dump truck, both Chrissy and my takeaway was how smooth the ride in the vehicle was. The trail was not difficult, but had enough deep ruts and back and forth to make the vehicle swing around a bit. The Tacoma would have been creaking and flexing, and banging your head on the side pillars. The Grenny was silent and smooth, as to be expected from a new vehicle. The only really irritating take away was that coming from a manual transmission, the manual gear up and down shift on the BMW shifter feels backwards. I repeatedly shifted up when I meant to shift down. I got it by the end of the drive, it was just surprising. I intentionally took the worst lines and steepest approaches on the course, and never once drug the frame or spring mounts, nor touched the front skid plate. Again, the road was not that difficult, but the clearance felt good, and the visibility over the front of the hood, which is bad in a 1st gen Tacoma, and terrible in every year after that, was quite good over the nose, and around the front corners. The blind spots around the rear axle area are significant, and will be tough in Atlanta traffic. As it was, cornering tightly on narrow trail could easily lead to dragging the last 1/3 of the truck around a tree if not paying attention.
I took the opportunity near the end of the dive, when the cooling fan was roaring (and it is loud) to try out the wading button. Having read the engagement procedure previously, I knew it was a long press, then a confirmation press to turn it on. On the long press, a confirmation message showed on the screen, which had to be acknowledged then I pressed the button again. Another screen message. I'm not totally sure that I successfully engaged it. I would really have liked to see the button LED blink during the confirmation stage, then go steady when confirmed, but the LED just goes on or off. It might be a matter of me not reading/comprehending the manual.
I also tried the descent control/crawl control/whatever its called cause I'll never use it in real life. It defaulted to 3mph, which was way faster than I would have liked, particularly for really difficult terrain. I later learned from Chrissy that her driver explained that if you engage it while moving, it uses your current speed. If you engage it while stopped, it defaults to 3mph, and you can change that with the cruise control up/down controls. I wish i had more time to play around with that.
I noticed that the default display while in 4wd, which has the digital tilt and pitch gauges, also has a digital compass display in between the two gauges. Kind of makes the optional compass on the console redundant. Maybe we can get some aftermarket love there for something else- like the red trailer brake controller.
Chrissy's coach confirmed that the entertainment system will have wireless carplay, but the android is plug in only. She also thought the screen was pretty busy, even for 4WD mode, but admits, after using it for a while it's no more complex than her battery/hybrid Rav4 display.
I took a long time poking around the truck up on the rack, I'll make another thread about some of those findings, but I'll put them here so my stuff is all in one place. I had questions about the oil flow for the transfer case/transmission. There are oil cooler lines coming from the back of the transfer case. This seemed strange to me, and the reps didn't have an answer. I wonder if the xfer case has its own cooler, which seems unlikely, or do the transmission and transfer share oil, and the pump runs the lines to the back of the transfer case? The lines run to the left front cooler behind the bumper cowl. Regardless, they look easy to remove for service. The transmission oil filter (the entire bottom panel) is completely unobstructed for service. No wrestling around a frame crossmember to swap it out, and plenty of room to work. It's a 150k miles service, but nice to know it won't be too hard to do. On a related note, there are no skid plates currently behind the front nose plate- The starter is easily accessible, the oil filter is done from the top, so no drama there. The transmission is well above the frame level, so the odds of banging the plastic filter are unlikely, but some will probably want a skid plate. The Catalytic converter is also very accessible- gonna need a hard to remove skid plate for that one as well. The 24 gal fuel tank seems like the lowest point, but we were assured it has a skid plate of its own. Luckily, there are loads of unused frame mounting points, flanges with holes, that just seem well designed for adding skid plates and other under body things. Another thing I seem to do frequently is swap rear shocks. The shock towers are standard on the axle end, but a little strange on the top frame side- At first look, it seems like there isn't enough room to remove the bolt from the top hanger, but after some poking around, it looks like the whole shock mount may unbolt from the frame with two more easily accessed bolts, then you can remove the shock mount from the shock on the bench. Nice from a maintenance perspective.

Overall, we were very impressed. I didn't have that many questions, as much of them have been hashed out here on the forum.

Oh, we did ask about the ability to order just the base model instead of the trialmaster or belstaff editions. Wes (?) did seem to think that you would still be able to order the base model, which was good news for those absolutely constrained by budget. I might take that with a grain of salt, however.
 

jrchrds

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Also, some pretty cool cars in the parking lot- someone brought a very nicely arranged Defender 110, there was a mid range Nissan Patrol (The last one I saw was a 1965) and a couple of overland rigs. I felt much more like this was my crowd than I did at the PT01 Tampa showing, where it seemed to be mostly not offroad types.
 
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I went yesterday. Well organized - good information provided. I drove the Brittannia Blue Trialmaster. We were in low center diff locked from start to finish. It took about a minute for me to get used to the power curve, having just finished driving an Acura MDX. I saw someone somewhere else say the accelerator had a long take up and then bit, and experienced some of that. I quickly got used to it.

The vehicle just nom-nom-nommed everything in front of it with surefooted confident handling. It did not break a sweat. We had a good opportunity to test the hill descent control and it was fantastic. It felt like riding a Clydesdale down a steep incline. It just clopped on down slow and steady. Muddy ruts were also a cake walk. We did not cross any significant water features. We had a couple opportunities to do so, but that was not part of the course. Mildly disappointing. My instructor told me the entire course could be done with engine braking alone.

It was also great to see all of the colors first hand. My impression that Brittannia Blue was just too darn dark for me was confirmed in spades. In the shade, it was way more black than blue. Should have called it Midnight Blue. My two favorites were the Scottish White and Sela Green. Magic Mushroom used to be in my top three, but I just did not like it as much as the White and Green. I will likely end up going with the White because of the advantages in the hot climate of the deep South and because it will look better than the green with trail scars. I intend to use this vehicle for overlanding.

Good information obtained during the event:

The main speaker (I think his name is Wes) was the same guy seen in other videos of this event who was the industry car guy contracted by Ineos. Dude knows his stuff backwards and forwards and I asked a lot of questions. Could not stump him. Here is what I learned:

Confirmation pricing will come out for the U.S. market on May 17, and a couple weeks or so will be provided thereafter for configuring and ordering.

A second deposit will NOT be required for reservation holders to place their order. He explained that the rationale for this is that it would be too complicated for Ineos to route cash from the deposit to the appropriate dealer, since the dealer network will not likely be fully sorted by then. Not sure I understood that, but that's what I took from what he said. Perhaps I misunderstood the rationale.

There will not be an opportunity for U.S. reservation holders to do any on-road driving of the Grenadier before placing an order. The explanation was that they will not have sufficient inventory of vehicles qualified to operate on U.S. roads by then. The current plan is to have the opportunity for on-road driving at some point over the summer at dealers.

The U.S. market will get the steel bumper, and the reason for why the U.S. market will not be able to have the bull bar installed at the factory is because they have not crash tested it with the bull bar. The bar can be purchased and installed at the dealer level and should be the same as the Australian one - or one very much like it. He also said he expects the Grenadier to receive a 5 star crash rating. It will not receive a 5+ star rating because it does not have some of the bells and whistles - such as cameras needed to reach that rating. The steel bumper can also hold 300 lbs.

He said the doors could hold 80 lbs.

The windshield wiper issue - not reaching the corners as well as some other vehicles is due to the relatively short height and flat aspect of the windshield.

There is room for a 12 gallon underbody auxiliary gas tank. It will have to be an aftermarket feature, but he said it should be straightforward to install and hook up to a switch panel control. He mentioned a company out west that does this sort of thing. Perhaps somewhere in Oregon?

Installing 33 inch tires will not require any modification to the vehicle. However, he also cautioned that the 33's should not be more than a 10 lbs. difference in weight from the existing tires, because otherwise the ABS system may not perform properly. So, if looking to fit tires with a more than 10 lbs. difference, some modification would likely be required. He also said a 33 inch tire will fit on the rear tire rack without impeding the operation of the side door.

He also talked about the five year 60,000 warranty and said there was a 12 year warranty on the paint. I learned from my instructor driver this covered corrosion and sun damage.

I also learned from my instructor that the likely rationale for why Ineos did not go with lithium for the second battery was simply due to cost/scale. It's understandably a lot cheaper to buy more of the same battery. He certainly preferred Lithium for a second battery due to the weight savings and longer use power provided.

Finally, another exciting thing I learned (from a source that will not be identified) is that Goose Gear was at one of these recent events and took detailed measurements of the interior to construct a drawer system that will make a flat deck to the folded down rear seats PLUS a rear seat delete kit!
Awesome write-up, thank you! That explanation re: no deposit makes perfect sense, and is quite the pleasant surprise! Annnnnnnd very happy Goose-Gear had their mitts on one. Just 20 more days to drive it for us!
 
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