i agree the forum bashes the dear old scorp a lot - I dont agree with those views, thats why I bought one, preferring it over the safari 2.2 dicor any day.
Incidentally I didnt place this here earlier but on my way down the hills when we stopped for photos, we saw a new black Safari Dicor 2.2 that appeared to have over heated and was standing halfway up Sigur on one of the hairpin bends with its bonnet open! I didnt want to compound the owners and other forum members misery by taking photos of his misfortune!
MHAWK is the new gen engine, which will soon (within the next year or max two), be made available in different variants at different prices because the 2.6 crde engine is pretty much in the last quarter of its product life cycle. Most of us will need to upgrade to the 2.2 in about 2 to 3 years time, once break even point on the loan for the current vehicle is reached.
To answer your queries:
1. Ground clearance stated and claimed by Scorp (normal scorp with normal stock tyres) - 180mm at the lowest point. I found this to be sufficient. (The getaway has an extra 5-10mm because it has bigger/ taller tyres). With the normal scorpio if you are driving over badly and deeply rutted roads, then as per my experience with Boleros and other jeep type vehicles, it is useful to place one wheel in the rut and the other on top of the centre raised bit of road, to ensure relatively smooth progress, without getting stuck. However, I would attempt this only in dry conditions or lightly slushy conditions because of the weight of the Scorp, which in its 2WD avatar is sure to get into trouble if this is attempted in deep slush conditions, to say nothing of sliding around while going through the slush.
2. I placed 2 of my steel wheels as ballast to weigh down the back a little since most of the time it is only me and my wife in the big Scorp. It definitely aids handling because this vehicle is at its best, when loaded. Im putting 2 more of the steel wheels in as ballast on my next trip. They can be laid flat in their boxes, under the boot space mat and all our luggage piled on top of them, to aid proper weight distribution. They do not roll about and cause irritation at the back, when it is done this way.
3.If you drive at relatively higher speeds over bad roads or rutted areas or potholed stretches, one can reasonably expect the alignment and balancing to go out of whack. In my case the alignment went only slightly out of whack - +/- 3 points, no more. But balancing went off because Im sure several of the weights fell off! I was doing 40 to 60kmh generally, while weaving about a bit, trying to avoid the potholes as much as possible, on those bad roads and coming down to a dead halt and then 10-20-30 only in case of really bad potholes which would have hurt my tyres badly.
4. Nitrogen filled tyres - I was told that the tyre pressure would last longer and I would not need to keep filling up - however I felt the steering to be a bit heavy so I went and topped up with air after coming back to town, since the nitrogen chap is not open on Sundays. Left front wheel had come down to 28, right front had gone to 34, Rear left had come to 30 and Rear right had come to 30. Therefore I have decided that I will continue filling only normal air instead of Nitrogen in my tyres.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rippergeo  nice to know that the scorpio handles better than you expected.
this forum does bash the scorpio quite a bit.
now to start keeping an eye out for the mhawk when it comes out on the 2nd hand market- I suppose in 2yrs time. 
BTW- what is the stated ground clearance of the scorpio in the user manual?
what happens when the ballast comes off? does it make such a huge difference in ride and handling?
also,what happens to accleration and FE? is it worth the trade off to use ballast?the extra weight would also have contributed to the wheel alignment going out of whack.
finding out that the wheel alignment did redoing after the trip is a bit disappointing. i was expecting the scorpio to be tougher.
what speeds were you doing over the rutted/potholed roads? |