91st Mahindra Great Escape hits the dirt in Lonavala

  • Jul 17, 2012
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Supported by one of the largest tyre companies in the world Maxxis, the second edition of the Great Escape Lonavala also happened to be one of the competitive legs for the Mahindra 'Off-Roading Trophy' that will see participation of winners from five more Great Escapes scheduled in this calendar year

91st Mahindra Great Escape in Lonavala

As parched as the year has been so far, the occasional drizzles and scattered puddles have contributed towards building a certain degree of excitement over the outset of the monsoon season, and for off-roading patrons like Mahindra & Mahindra, it is a chance to exploit, and at the same time celebrate the spirit of Jeeping into the wilderness, in this case the second edition of the Great Escape in the lush forests around Lonavala.


Driving into the otherwise tranquil 19 degree North adventure park at Amby Valley, which was our rendezvous point for the event, we instantly set our eyes upon an entire swarm of 2WD & 4 WD, vehicles from the Mahindra stable all gathered for a single purpose;  to participate in an off roading adventure like no other. Customers from Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and neighbouring areas had all driven down to the venue specifically for the event.

91st Mahindra Great Escape in Lonavala

Being a seasoned trekker I have always fancied forest trails and am inevitably walking through them this time of the year, but as a part of the media crew attending my first monsoon off roading event, my mind wasn’t focused on how flat the sole of my shoes were, but rather the tread on the highway tyres of our 4X4 Thar (courtesy Mahindra) that we discovered later was quite ill equipped to handle such harsh terrain. Other vehicles participating in this particular event also included the Bolero, Scorpio, Legend and some specially prepared rescue vehicles, each one representing the tough and rugged DNA of Mahindra.


Supported by one of the largest tyre companies in the world Maxxis, the second edition of the Great Escape Lonavala also happened to be one of the competitive legs for the Mahindra ‘Off-Roading Trophy’ that will see participation of winners from five more Great Escapes scheduled in this calendar year.

91st Mahindra Great Escape in Lonavala

The rally was finally flagged off at 10:30 am, and turned out to be a very slow start as a result of early breakdowns along the road. Despite our intial inhibitions over attempting the competitive route, which was the most rugged and challenging road prepared specially for this year’s off-roading championship participants we decided to bestow our trust in the vehicle and go ahead with it.

The route chalked out for us was indeed a challenging one with rocky and rain soaked terrain aplenty. But at the able hands of our Chief Road Tester and off roading enthusiast Dilip Desai, we managed to comfortably maneuver our Thar over a variety of a unfavourable road conditions and make it to the competitive route where the ultimate challenge and the Thar’s off roading limitations with stock tyres finally began to give in.

91st Mahindra Great Escape in Lonavala  - River Crossing
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The first major challenge was getting past a running stream that saw the vehicle’s four wheels partially submerged. The Thar drove right through with no major hiccups and moved on to higher grounds and continued to carry great momentum for the obstacles that lay ahead.

Arriving at a fairly large clearing with inconsistent rocky surfaces our Thar while attempting to make its own road found itself struggling to gain forward or reverse traction in a muddy patch that despite the best efforts only slided deeper into the wet muddy surface, and had to finally resort to being yanked out with the help of a tow rope fastened to the rear end of a Jeep being driven by a fellow participant. The entire Mahindra team and all team members in the vicinity at the time assisted us whole heartedly and before we knew it our Thar was back on the move and once again comfortable trailing the vehicles ahead.

91st Mahindra Great Escape in Lonavala



We stopped for refreshments at a forest clearing which also happened to be a very important stage for participants of the off roading championship. A slushy pit with sharp inclines was chosen as one of the main stages for judging a driver’s off roading skill and based on his/her performance earn sizeable points for his final score in the championship.

Not surprisingly enough, it was the knobby tyred vehicles that achieved success in completing this feat, while a number of vehicles even with all sorts of modifications and suspension alternations were left stranded in the slushy pit due to lack of grip on the unsuitable rubber that dressed their four wheels.

91st Mahindra Great Escape in Lonavala

Having made it this far, and after witnessing the follies of running highway radials on a vehicle that was out to attempt some very serious of roading we decided to return to the camp rather than drive back the same route that brought us to the halfway mark and in doing so prevented any further inconvenience upon the participants who would feel the need to pull us out of trouble once again if things went wrong.

The overall experience at the Mahindra Great Escape Lonavala was more of a lesson in off roading and less of an actual adventure owing to the fact that amidst such varying and harsh road conditions it took more than an AWD equipped vehicle to get past several obstacles. For those who like me were privileged to witness the event in action it was a display of skill, prior experience and the ability to negotiate a fine balance between your vehicle’s mechanical abilities and a driver’s personal ambition.


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