4x4 Adventures Ltd Taunton, Somerset
(6034521)
DBORC Driving Course and Social Morning - 9th Mar 19
Words and Pictures by James Trembath

The weather was kind to us – finally a day in the week with no rain in course. Joining us today we had Mark and Ed in the Discovery3, Jim and Dan in a 90 TD5 and Brad, Adam and Jordan in a 2.4 110. As with tradition we met at the Waie Inn for a coffee and completion of any outstanding paperwork whilst David talked everyone through what to expect and what to do if they encountered a problem. From there we headed off in convoy for the short mile of tarmac before getting into the course proper!

No sooner have you engaged low and diff lock and within 200ms there is a 50m wading section! There is no gentle warm up here we are straight into it. This is subsequently followed by a deep rutted section before tackling the first small climb and descent bringing you straight onto a side slope. By now you haven’t done more than 400m!

We have been running our driver and recovery training courses at this site for the last 12 years and it’s one of very few sites that has everything in such close proximity. Perfect for a training ground.

The off roaders for the morning were certainly lapping it up. Jim had taken the first available place behind David in his lead vehicle. Initially a little anxious about his All Terrains he soon learned how sure fitted they were, plus being near the front initially helped with the tracks before lots of other vehicles had dropped the wet mud onto the rocky climbs!

Brad with an almost full 110 was working hard on some of the corners with the wheel base but was loving the stability of the longer 110 on the climbs, those wheels sometimes just missing out the holes, but then again not always – a good chance to try some failed hill climbs!

Matt and his Discovery made good progress in the Discovery3, again on All Terrains, it did have a little hiccup at low engine revs with ETC cutting in causing some running problems but that aside it’s great to see how the air suspension soaks up those articulations and makes light work of the bumps and humps. It certainly looked very comfortable in there!

Have a look through the pictures and videos and see what you make of the day. We are running these days on a near monthly basis, pre booking only, Maximum 9 vehicles. The 20 Apr19 will be the last DBORC at the discounted £25 per vehicle price.


A video of the day


Some pictures from the morning