From city streets and open highways to the sandy terrain of Rajasthan, the Desert Dash 09 was a different experience all together. Organised by Cougar Motorsports, the event comprised of luxury SUV’s like the Porsche Cayenne, Volkswagen Touareg, Mercedes M-Class, Toyota Land Cruiser, Mitsubishi Outlander, Nissan X-Trail, Honda CR-V, Ford Endeavour, and a Mahindra Scorpio piloted by yours truly and my partner in crime, Vir Raina.
Held from the 28th of November to the 2nd of December, the rally was flagged off at the very exclusive Aman Resort in New Delhi, where all the participating vehicles underwent scrutiny the day before. Officially, the rally commenced the next day from a brewery called Mount Shivalik in Behror – close to the Rajasthan border where the participants were given a quick run through of the rules and regulations of the sport. We were explained the concept of TSD (time, speed, distance), which was the format of the rally. Since it was the first rally of its kind for most of the participants, the enthusiasm was high, and not dulled in the least with a detailed briefing on road.
books – with its mind boggling assortment of signs, symbols, and the corresponding calculation that would be required to complete the rally. With a mix of on and off-road stages, the event certainly tested our nerve, as it involved some technical and skilful driving.
Being a media partner of the event, we got the opportunity to participate, courtesy of the organisers, as well as Mahindra – who supplied a Scorpio, albeit a two-wheel drive due to constraints of time and logistics.
Covering an approximate distance of 1,100 kilometres, the event was divided into 4 legs. The 1st leg began on the morning of the 29th of November from Mount Shivalik. This leg took participants from Behror to Kuchaman Fort, approximately 100 kilometres ahead of Jaipur, covering the day’s distance of 270 kilometres for different sub stages. During the leg, we passed through towns like Samode and Chomu, as the convoy made its way to the famous Sambar salt lake.
The salt lake is a sight to behold, as all you see is flat, desolate openness, with a surface of salt that stretches all the way out to the horizon – devoid completely of houses, people, or any kind of habitation or vegetation whatsoever. It’s quite extraordinary. What was even more extraordinary, however, was seeing vehicles like the Cayenne, Touareg and Montero blaze through the salt lake – in some cases, well into three-digit speeds. It’s certainly sufficient to get your adrenaline pumping. Driving the Scorpio was an exhilarating experience as well, as we pelted our way through the stage by maintaining momentum and following the cones as instructed at the beginning of the stage. Off road driving is very different from normal driving, and requires a delicate seat-of-the-pants feel, which the Scorpio provided surprisingly well. And providing onlookers with some excitement, our designated driver for the Desert stages, Vir Raina, held some breathtaking slides while tackling the salt lake.
Apart from us, there was an E class Mercedes, which was the only other two-wheel drive vehicle that took part, except that it’s pure luxury car. Nevertheless, to the surprise of many, it completed the stage without getting stuck or bogged down even once. However, evidence of the fact that there were a lot of motorsport novices in the event came at the end of the stage, when only 7 out of the 17 participants were able to find the Passage Control, which is a check point in the middle of the stage. We also lost our way somewhere in the middle, but by God’s grace, in an attempt to find our way back, landed up conveniently at the control. Porsche Cayenne, car number 1, clocked the fastest time across the stage. At the end of leg 1 at Kuchaman Fort, the X-Trail driven by veteran rally driver, Anil Wadia, had taken the early lead, followed by Love Kumar Khosla in his Toyota Land Cruiser in second, and the Porsche Cayenne of Pramath Raj Sinha in third. As for us, our first day was pretty satisfactory, as we ended up in fourth position – surprising many organisers and participants. Not bad for a home grown SUV.
Leg two took the participants from Kuchaman to Lallgarh Palace at Bikaner, covering a distance of approximately 325 kilometres. On our way, we passed through Tal Chappar (wildlife sanctuary) where we even got a chance to experience a little bit of nature at its best, as we saw a couple of black bucks and a neelgai along the side of the road. Unlike the first leg, day two had two off-road stages, which were tougher than the previous day, as many of us realized by losing our way once again – in our case, with unfortunate consequences. A navigation error caused us to go off track. In an attempt to get the car turned around and head back in the right direction, the conditions got the better of us, as the Scorpio dug deep into the sand and got beached – with only the rear wheels spinning, our speed demon got well and truly planted in the sand. Our misery was further aggravated when help, in the form of a tractor, arrived only during the later part of the day – resulting in exclusion from the rest of the days’ stages.
For the others, the second off-road stage began largely without incident – with all the four-wheel drive vehicles making it to end of the stage, though three participants incurred penalties for failing to come to a complete halt in front of the Time Control check point. Day two ended with the leader board noticing one important change, as the Land Cruiser Driven by Khosla took the overall lead, followed by Wadia in his Nissan, and Sinha in his golden Cayenne. The evening was one of introspection for many, as several participants pondered on their mistakes, and some even questioned the timings recorded by the marshals. For us it was time to reflect on the errors we had committed during the day. To lift spirits, Cougar Motorsports organised a very exciting voluntary night drive for the participants – to demonstrate just how rally drivers tackle tricky sand stages under the cover of darkness.
Lallgarh Palace to Khimsar Dunes Village (100 kilometres short of Jodhpur) was the route for third leg. The overall distance for this leg was 175 kilometres, and it comprised of one off-road stage near a place called Nokha. All hopes of us retaining our previously held fourth position had gone down the drain, but we soldiered on nevertheless, and made the best use of the remaining legs – especially the off road section where both Vir and I had a point to prove. One of the first to arrive for this stage, we were not allowed to start due to fear that we would get stuck like the previous day. Adamant to prove the Scorpio’s worth, and our reputation, we waited till the rest of the field went through with the stage.
Meanwhile we had a few people come to us saying that we should withdraw from the stage, as it would be a task in itself to get us out if we got stuck again. Hell bent and determined, we finally got our turn, and recorded the fastest average speed of 47 km/h. Though the stipulated average speed for this particular stage was set at 30 km/h, we couldn’t help but exceed it, since our chances of getting stuck would be exacerbated if we lowered our speed. The Scorpio blazed through the dunes, and it was with a sigh of relief, and honour, to have competed the stage without mishap – proving our detractors wrong in the process. At the end of the day, the leader board looked pretty much the same with the Land Cruiser leading the pack, followed by the X-Trail in second, and the Cayenne in third position.
The last and final leg saw an early morning start for most of the competitors as this Leg stretched from Khimsar Fort to Amanbagh, a total of 203 kilometres for the final stretch, which ended at Kishangarh. Comprising of only on-road stages, the final leg didn’t add any changes to the leader board as Love Kumar Khosla and Amitabh Sharma claimed 1st position, followed by Anil Wadia and Ashwin Naik in second, and Pramath Raj Sinha and Vipul Tuli and Gauri Varma in third position. In keeping with its luxury theme, the rally finished at the beautiful Amanbagh resort, close to Alwar on the Delhi-Jaipur highway.
The Desert Dash was a courageous leap of faith into the unknown for Cougar Motorsport. The concept of a motorsport event, with a bent of luxury, was something that hadn’t been tried in India before. The fact that the event was a success is very much a sign of the coming of age of the Indian automotive market. It’s a sign not only of increasing disposable income, but also of the changing spirit that drove the owners of these enormously expensive vehicles to use these luxury SUVs the way they were very much originally intended.
To see Cayenne’s, Touareg’s, and Mercedes ML’s, blazing though the sands was an awesome sight – one which will not soon be forgotten. Our only regret is that we didn’t have a four-wheel drive Scorpio
with which to really take it to the competition. Nevertheless, the Scorpio demonstrated the tremendous leaps that M&M have made
on an engineering front with their latest generation of truly sport utility vehicles.
In retrospect, the Desert Dash can be viewed as more than just a rally – it’s a sign of the dawning of a new age in India, one that’s being unveiled before our very eyes.
The complete results can be viewed at the Cougar Motorsport website – www.cougarmotorsport.in
