The Offroadpark Südheide is located between Wolfsburg and Celle, 30 minutes from the Autostadt. Normally, quads, hard offroad vehicles, and also horses plough through this offroad parcours. The nature has almost recaptured all former buildings. Only gigantic wooden girders are reminding of the former use of this area as a military shooting range.
"Fearlessly off the brake!"
Matthias Luft, automotive blogger at Motoreport.de and Youtuber, took an in-depth offroad drive of Volkswagen’s current SUV range together with 20 international influencers.
Offroad trainings with Volkswagen Driving Experience
Reunion with the „Volkswagen Driving Experience“
Our group of British, Czech, Russian, and German influencers is given a short safety instruction: Keep all windows closed, keep a safe distance to the vehicle in front of you and just don’t try to explore the ten hectare large forest area on your own. I’m happy to meet Heiko again. He is the instructor of our group and has already guided us to the technical limits of commercial- and sportscars of Volkswagen. Lovingly framed collages are decorating the walls of the briefing room. Heiko still remembers his first testdrive on this parcours with former generations of the Touareg, Tiguan and Passat Alltrack.
Exploring the terrain “fully digital” with the new Touareg
At temperatures around zero degrees and drizzle we are gradually starting the six cylinder engines of our Touaregs. From outside you can hear a potent sound that is nearly not audible in the interior. The Touareg guesses correctly that we might like it a little cozy today and has already activated the heated seats. Even the offroad tracks are artificially created, they are really tough. First, smaller hillclimbs can be taken in „Offroad Level One.“ Then our convoy stops in front of a small pond. „Imagine, we could only end our daytrip, if we reached the other side!“, Heiko announces through the walkie-talkie. We have to lift up our cars, taking the Touareg to „Offroad Level 2“, which means seven centimetres more ground clearance. Even with the massive Touareg, it is an effort of will to drive through this quite deep water segment. But the radiator (or even the passenger) don’t suffer damage, even with more spectacular water crossings.
Offroad trainings with Volkswagen Driving Experience
The most stunning fact after this first part of our testdrive is that with the Touareg, moving through the rough terrain nearly feels like a virtual game. The air suspension absorbs nearly all bumps. Driving entanglement, I can’t imagine how spectacular the situations looks from outside – having one wheel up in the air. Acoustic glass ensures a quiet interior while our convoy hurls mud-fountains out of the wheel housings. One of our British collegues vlogs: „I never thought moving nearly 2 tons through hard terrain could be so smooth“. We know: The Touareg is not designed as a hard offroader. But as a lifestyle SUV, it’s stunning how it manages this terrain.
If we are driving offroad, then this event must be authentic! But as romantic and pre-Christmas the winter barbecue might be, heated seats and heated steering are luring us back into the cars. In this second part of the testdrive, our group switches to the T-Rocs. I take the one right behind our instructor’s car. With a ground clearance of 16 centimetres, at some parts of the trail we have to take care not to touch stones with the bodywork of our 700 kilometres young T-Roc. The trails are now consisting mostly of slippery clay and they are already quite deep from many predecessors.
Taking the food off the brake at a gradient of 45%
After some minutes of settling-in to the compact SUV, we are starting our first challenge: In front of us, a mound with a gradient of 45% is waiting to be climbed by the T-Roc. With a bit of run-up and, most important, a steady acceleration, this shouldn’t be a problem for the T-Roc and me. Right before the summit, it’s beginning to get slippery: The trail is already quite deep and greasy. The 4Motion all wheel system now has to work hard to optimally distribute the power to all four wheels and not to get stuck. The conscious effort in this
situation is, even if you see and hear the sand splashing around, to consistently stay on the gas. To drive further to the top, only able to see the cloudy sky until you can get the horizon back in focus. The diesel isn’t really impressed by the ascent. After some seconds, all electronic aids have brought me safe to the summit. Looking downwards, I guess, now it will become even more rich in adrenalin. The slope is so steep and slippery, that our instructor warns: “You will only have limited steering here. But don’t worry, the hill descent control will guide you down.” If the 4Motion Active Control is set to offroad mode (the “hill symbol”), the hill descent control is automatically active, if a steep gradient is detected by the car. In the moment I’m threatened to rush downhill, the green HDC symbol comes up in the Active Info Display. I take my food fearlessly off the brake. With gently braking assistance, the T-Roc keeps up to a speed below 10 kilometres per hour, ensuring all wheels to keep traction and not to lock.
Just do it!
After many more water crossings, complex terrain entanglements and on sloping surfaces, we finish our winter offroad drive with a tech chat. Just around the corner, a freshly styled member of Volkswagens’s SUV family is waiting for us: One of the very first Tiguan Offroad. With its new trimline for offroad lovers, it is symbolically parked between the T-Roc and the Touareg and is waiting for his own offroad story.
"It's T-Time!" (from left to right): Touareg, Tiguan Offroad, and T-Roc.
