Heading out to hunt down wildflowers? CAR’s Peter Frost took Mahindra’s latest full-sized SUV; the Scorpio Adventure, along for a backroads sortie.
Brake, clutch, engage, power up. Repeat. And repeat and repeat. This is hell for some, heaven for others – careening across an empty landscape, dust clouds in the rear view mirror, every sense alert to that dip in the dirt that heralds a donga that’ll take out the sump. And between Clanwilliam and Calvina on the R364, with its three special passes, it’s especially challenging – no one is coming for you out there. For the detailed story of the route, see the story on our sister site Getaway. This is the Mahindra lowdown.
Related: New Mahindra Scorpio-N set to join our SUV market in 2023
A quick recap. The backroad R364 is an alternative routing through the Tankwa from Clanwilliam to Calvinia. The 100-kilometre stretch takes in vast plains, the three passes of Pakhuis (tar), Klipfonteinrant and Botterkloof and is ideal for flower hunters, especially above Botterkloof. Grand, empty, nothing and everything, but also tricky. Late rains have left the now hardened clay deeply rutted which will challenge even independent-suspensioned SUV techwagons. Ladder framers, it’s a bit of a samba for you, store the incidentals usually on the seat alongside. Botterkloof Pass is of course the big daddy of the route, a gleeful 1:10 ascent at its steepest section, near the top. There are no guard rails either, so no photography on the fly or animated conversations.
Scorpio – assertive, determined, sure of themselves
Like its namesake star sign, Mahindra’s full-sized SUV fights above its weight class, happy to mix it up and deal with the consequences later. Happily the ladder frame Asian proved up to the yada yada, giving a more than decent account of itself. Chassis first. High and low range 4×4 are available on the Adventure, switchable on the fly. In practice it worked well, there were no issues (some of the chat rooms suggest the locking can be a bit hit and miss, but no problems here). Suspension did a first class job of keeping things manageable on the tôle ondulée as well as soft and comfy on the blacktop. Travel is also well balanced – there was no bottoming out, even on the trickiest sections of the fast roller-coaster sections below Botterkloof Pass. The very decent 245/65/17 Cross Contis complete the picture, dispatching the shale down Klipfonteinrant Pass and are quiet and grippy on the tar. Oddly the spare wheel is smaller, a 235, likely a hangover from the standard S11 4×4 variant.
That engine, that engine
But head and shoulders above all other aspects is Mahindra’s most excellent turbo-diesel. Numbers tell nothing of the real story; 103kW, 320Nm, decent but not show-stopping for a large SUV. Most notably the Indian engineers have almost entirely eliminated turbo lag, even at low speeds in higher gears, so the inevitable trench braking and accelerating through the dongas is a doddle. No hunting around for a ridiculously narrow power band. Allied to the slick gearbox and clutch it’s lots of fun cruising the backroad networks. Crucially, it’s also economical; 13,9km/litre translates to 7,2 l/100km on the back stretch between Pakhuis and Botterkloof. Slow hand clap please.
The weirdisms, there are some
There are a number of oddities. The stop/start seems to switch the engine off and doesn’t restart the car, disconcerting to say the least (this is the manual, likely it’s set up for the auto). Then a man tells you to ‘seat. belt. for a safe draaaive’, and the sound system defaults to the radio every time you restart, meaning there’s a heart attack’s worth of static after meals. The infotainment screen is angled to your knees and the last row of seats – this is nominally a seven-seater – eats into both second row legroom as well as load capacity. Turf it out. And the looks? Rehydrated SpongeBob certainly, but the square works are all about form following function. Those huge rear three quarter windows are a boon for reversing and watching flowers on the fly.
But most impressive is its character. We forget how friendly ‘simple’ is. No, it’s not going to win any look-and-feel competitions, especially inside, but get in, go, feel a connection to the landscape and the surroundings. Old school, raw. It’s not an isolating experience like so many current techwagons. They’re going to change it soon, say Mahindra, make it more lifestyle-like, whatever that means, which is a pity, so catch it while you can. A definite keeper.
Mahindra Scorpio 2.2CRDe 4WD S11 Adventure
Price: R454 000, but you can buy the standard S11 4×4 for R407 000
Engine: 4-cylinder 2200cc turbo-diesel
Transmission: 6-speed manual
Power: 103 kW @3750 rpm
Torque: 320 N.m @1500-2800 rpm
Driven wheels: 4×4, high and low range
0-100 km/h: 10 seconds
Top speed: 188 km/h
Fuel consumption: 7,2 L/100km (trip)
CO2 emissions: 204 g/km
Rivals: BAIC B40 Plus 2.0TDi City Hunter (R594 500), Toyota’s 4×4 Fortuner, Isuzu’s MU-X, Ford’s Everest, Mitsubishi’s Pajero Sport all of which are considerably more expensive.
Photos: Peter Frost (@peter.frost1)
