Giant test
INEOS GRENADIER I LAND ROVER DEFENDER 110 I FORD RANGER WILDTRACK
…but not as we know it. Is the Grenadier, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new old Defender, the best 4x4 by far? Land Rover and Ford beg to differ
THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT
Absolute objectivity. A spotless critical faculty unsullied by preconceptions. Walls of the mind, sky-high and solidly built, against which bias splatters like so much rotten fruit. This is the Zen-like state in which CAR’s crack (I said ‘crack ’) team begins each and ever y test. Ruthlessly cultivated with ice baths, weeks of lonely meditation high on Fenland mountainsides and long walks in wildernesses without wi-fi, it is the way. We owe it to the cars. We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to you.
Except that we’re into cars, so that’s not quite how it works. Instead, like a cow’s hard-working stomachs, our minds have likely already absorbed hundreds of hours of press material, prev ious content and off-the-record discussions before we get any where near the machines in question.
And so, ahead of this contest, I’ve decided the Grenadier will drive like an old Defender, making it of minimal interest to anyone w ithout a rural veterinar y business. The R anger pickup will put up a good fight before falling back, hamstrung by the lack of luxury conferred by its pr ice point and humble leafsprung underpinnings. And the Defender will, with a couple of mostly pr ice-related caveats, romp to victory. Simple.
Except that as we get into it, thundering a long sun-scorched roads and lurching into the rocky, unkempt and firmly tarmacfree heart of the Peak District, the original hypothesis starts merrily springing leaks like an MoT-fail submarine. The R anger plain refuses to drop out of contention, over-performing like a Haas podium lock-out, and the Grenadier turns out to be one of the most charismatic cars we’ve driven all year. Time for that ice bath…
Small, light weight, compact. Columnist Gavin Green is a forcef ul proponent of the idea that less is more, regularly espousing the virtues of keeping things simple from his 700word pulpit. And as enthusiasts we know his word to be true. But like keto dieters presented with a crusty white farmhouse loaf, still oven-warm, show us a vast primar y-coloured pick-up truck, its edges chiselled like Dav id Gandy’s cheekbones, and we’re powerless to resist. Jeez, the Ford looks great in Wildtrack trim, its (£600 excluding VAT) Cyber Orange paint glowing in the pre-dawn half-light.
It’s early when I climb up into the R anger (love those A-pillar grab handles) but the air’s already warm like an Iberian swimming pool, these being the dog days of the September heat wave. I want to crank the seat high, the better to see the truck ’s distant corners, but it’s front-hinged so raising it als
