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Old 4th October 2013, 11:37   #1
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Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013

Three Range Rover Hybrids are driving from the factory in Solihull to the home of the parent company Tata in Mumbai, India, to demonstrate the capabilities of its diesel-electric drivetrain.

This 'Silk Trail 2013' 16,000km expedition visits 12 countries and takes in some of the world's most challenging roads, passes and trails, including part of the ancient, 4,000 mile Silk Road connecting Asia with the Mediterranean.
These are the first hybrids to attempt this challenging route.

The Silk Trail expedition is divided into 10 stages and is scheduled to visit France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyztan, China, Nepal and India.
The Range Rover Hybrids are being driven by teams of Land Rover development engineers and specially invited media from 10 countries in Europe and other nations along the route.

Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013-tower-bridge-first-full-day-journey..jpg

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Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013-karakoi-river.jpg

Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013-stuff.jpg

More here: http://www.landrover.com/gl/en/lr/ab...ew/silk-trail/
Image courtesy: telegraph.co.uk
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Old 7th October 2013, 00:45   #2
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Re: Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013

The Silk Trail 2013 expedition has now successfully traversed the Xinjiang-Tibet highway, during five consecutive days and nights at altitudes of 13,000 to 17,500 feet.

On this toughest leg so far on the journey from Solihull to Mumbai, the expedition's team members covered ground very few westerners have seen before, passing through military-controlled areas close to international borders at altitudes classified by medical practitioners and mountaineers as 'High', 'Very High', and 'Extremely High'.

Before entering China, the Silk Trail 2013 expedition spent the last of its eight nights in scenic Kyrgyzstan at a yurt camp next to Tash Rabat, a 15th Century brick-built caravanserai that sheltered merchants travelling on the Silk Road. Next day, the expedition reached Kashgar, one of China's westernmost and remotest of cities, where in Roman times the north and south Silk Roads split.

It was the high mountains that the three Range Rover Hybrid prototypes would have to conquer. In the next five days, heading south-east from Kashgar to Zhangmu on the China-Nepal border, the roads climbed and fell repeatedly between altitudes of 3,500 and 5,400 metres (11,500 and 17,717 feet).

At sea-level, 21 percent of the air is oxygen, but at 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) this is reduced to 10 percent. The effects of altitude were experienced by the whole team, with short bursts of supplementary oxygen required occasionally.

The performance of the Range Rover Hybrids was much less affected by the thin air. With the torque-strong alliance of electric-and-diesel engines proving only slightly less responsive than usual to throttle commands, particularly on steep inclines, the Range Rovers continued to make good progress with their heavy loads.

Auto makers rarely have a chance to test their vehicles at such extreme altitudes, so Land Rover engineers have been closely monitoring data logged about the cars' behaviour. This demanding journey is the final validation test of Range Rover Hybrid prototypes before the model is signed-off for production.

The expedition's last night in China was spent less than a mile away from the Friendship Bridge connecting China and Nepal, ahead of a crossing into the penultimate country on this epic journey to India.

And along the journey, the team is capturing some breath taking photos as well;

Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013-rr_silk_trail_2013_04_lowres.jpg

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Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013-rr_silk_trail_2013_update_6_011013_16_lowres.jpg

Source: http://newsroom.jaguarlandrover.com
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Old 7th October 2013, 00:57   #3
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Re: Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013

Wow, what a journey and breath taking pictures. Thanks for sharing. The day I landed in London I started looking for an used Land Rover and dreamt of making such a trip back to India next year. But the costs are turning out to be prohibitive :-(
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Old 9th October 2013, 05:39   #4
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Re: Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013

Compiled the set of visual captures of this tour so far.

Land Rover Silk Trail 2013 Expedition


Land Rover Silk Trail 2013 Expedition Leg 2 London to Odessa


Land Rover Silk Trail 2013 Expedition Leg 3 Odessa to Astrakhan


Land Rover Silk Trail 2013 Expedition Leg 4 Astrakhan to Camp Mountains

Last edited by sarathlal : 9th October 2013 at 05:42. Reason: Removed the secure link to enable proper video embed
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Old 11th October 2013, 09:43   #5
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Re: Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013

The expedition is about to enter India

The Silk Trail 2013 expedition prepared to enter the fourteenth and final country on the epic journey from Solihull to Mumbai when it passed through Nepal and reached the town of Mahendranagar on the border with India.
Leaving behind high altitudes and the peaks of the Himalayas, the three Range Rover Hybrid prototypes were driven on flatter but more hazardous roads, passing paddy fields and rain forests.
The heat and humidity, and the density and unpredictability of the traffic, have been increasing every day. The responsiveness of the Hybrid engine to the driver's throttle commands, and its ability to accelerate strongly, enabled safe overtaking manoeuvres on roads busy with trucks and buses.
The seventh of the expedition's eight-week journey started by crossing a deep river ravine on the Friendship Bridge connecting the town of Zhangmu in China with the village of Kodari in Nepal. One-by-one the Range Rover Hybrids were given permission to drive slowly across the bridge with the passengers required to follow them over on foot.
On the other side of the bridge lay a journey to Kathmandu of merely 85 miles - but the traffic was so dense, and the roads so severely potholed, that the Range Rover again had to draw on its reserves of acceleration and its class leading (590mm) wheel articulation to ride smoothly over the bumps. Even so, this short distance took three hours to drive - an indication of the challenges that would lie ahead in the next week on Nepal's hazardously busy roads.
The next leg of the journey, from Kathmandu to Pokhara, a town surrounded by three of the ten highest mountains in the world, was a 127-mile stretch of road demanding eight hours of unwavering concentration. Every foot of road space was contested by bicycles, tricycles, horse-drawn carts, scooters, motorbikes, cars, mini-buses, buses, trucks, roving cows, slow-moving water buffalo, loose dogs, and fearless pedestrians.
The Range Rover's commanding driving position was invaluable, allowing drivers to see further down the road and recognise hazards sooner. The need for regular braking also kept the Hybrid motor's battery recharged, ensuring that it assisted the 3-litre SDV6 diesel engine and further improved fuel economy despite the ever-changing pace of driving.
The three Range Rover Hybrid prototypes then were ready to cross the bridge over the Mahakali River and into India, for the final 1,000 miles to the expedition's destination, the city of Mumbai.


Thanks again to jaguarlandrover newsroom for the amazing tour pictures;
Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013-rr_silk_trail_2013_update_7_091013_01_lowres.jpg

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Source and photo credits: http://newsroom.jaguarlandrover.com
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Old 14th October 2013, 20:39   #6
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Re: Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013

I was waiting to recieve them here in Mumbai, and today I came to know via the face book page that they reached Mumbai on Friday afternoon itself.
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Old 14th October 2013, 20:52   #7
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Re: Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013

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Originally Posted by LP640 View Post
I was waiting to recieve them here in Mumbai, and today I came to know via the face book page that they reached Mumbai on Friday afternoon itself.
The whole convoy arrived at one of the Marine drive gymkhanas on Saturday afternoon. One Indian journo drove the Evoque from Surat to Mumbai.
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Old 15th October 2013, 03:52   #8
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Land Rover Completes World's First Hybrid Expedition Along Silk Trail From Solihull T

The Three Range Rover Diesel Hybrid prototypes have completed the ultimate engineering sign-off test by traversing 13 countries over 53 days from Solihull, UK, to Mumbai, India.

Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013-rr_hybrids_silk_trail_2013_mumbai_30_lowres.jpg

Hostile conditions on the route included asphalt roads riddled with vast and deep potholes, dusty desert trails in 43°C heat and numerous miles of mud and gravel tracks and cattle trails. In addition, river crossings, passes clinging to the edges of mountains partly blocked by rock falls, the thin air of extremely high altitudes and the dense and erratic traffic of Chinese and Indian roads all added to the test of man and machine.

The Silk Trail 2013 expedition was the final validation test for the Range Rover Hybrid before it is signed-off for production. From the home of the Legend in Solihull, UK, it blazed a trail through France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China (including Tibet), Nepal and India. For much of this distance the expedition followed the legendary Silk Road trading routes that first connected Asia with Europe more than 2,500 years ago. Overnight halts were made in hotels, hostels and tents at many of the same staging posts visited all those years ago by Silk Road merchants, missionaries and mercenaries.

Where the north and south Silk Roads split, near the remote city of Kashgar in north-western China, the expedition pioneered a mountainous route never previously completed by a vehicle from outside the country and never previously seen in its entirety by any westerner - the Xinjiang-Tibet highway, which put the new Range Rover Hybrid through its paces at heights of over 5,300 metres above sea level.

Seven consecutive days were spent at altitudes between 11,000 and 17,648 feet (3,350 and 5,379 metres). At such great heights, oxygen content in the air is reduced from the 21 percent found at sea-level to as little as 10 percent, making movement more difficult for humans and internal combustion engines. The Range Rovers continued to make good progress, benefitting from the electric motor's instant torque at 0 rpm and despite being laden with heavy loads including luggage, camping gear, food, medical equipment, and aerodynamically-unfriendly roof-racks carrying spare wheels, tyres and jerry cans of fuel.

Negotiating tracks so sticky with mud that they were impassable to other types of vehicle, the Range Rover hybrid's engine combination - with a 35kW electric motor supporting the TDV6 3.0 litre turbo-diesel engine - returned excellent fuel consumption for a vehicle so spacious and powerful. Throughout the epic journey the Range Rover Hybrids typically returned 36 to 37 mpg.

Land Rover development engineers closely monitored data loggers fitted to each car, sending back more than 300 gigabytes of detailed technical records to their engineering team at Gaydon in the UK. The purpose of the expedition was not to test the reliability of mechanical components, which are already proven, but to fine-tune the calibration of engine and transmission software to ensure perfectly seamless performance in all terrains and extreme temperatures and altitudes. Technical setbacks reflected the roughness of the road surfaces: 15 punctures among the expedition's three Range Rover Hybrid and four support vehicles, four wheels damaged by deep potholes, and four windscreens cracked by stones thrown-up on loose surfaces.

Peter Richings, Jaguar Land Rover Hybrids and Electrification Director who took part in the final leg from Jaipur to Mumbai commented: "The world's first diesel hybrid expedition along the Silk Trail pioneered an ambitious route across Europe and Asia that would have been impassable to most other types of vehicle - but no matter how hostile the conditions, the Range Rover Hybrid prototypes took it all in their stride.

"In developing the hybrid-powered Range Rover, our objective was to gain hybrid's fuel economy and carbon emissions advantages without compromising the Range Rover's go-anywhere capabilities, its cabin space or its refinement. The success of this remarkable expedition clearly demonstrates we have achieved that."

It was a pleasure following this great adventure from the start. All the way it was admiration to the passion for driving, the magnificent machines, breathtaking scenarios and the importance to our Mumbai in this epic journey!

Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013-rr_hybrids_silk_trail_2013_mumbai_29_lowres.jpg
Range Rover Hybrids trek to India - The Silk Trail 2013-rr_hybrids_silk_trail_2013_mumbai_31_lowres.jpg

Source and photo credits: http://newsroom.jaguarlandrover.com
Images, video and past press releases on Land Rover's extraordinary Silk Trail expedition from Solihull to Mumbai, please visit www.media.landrover.com.
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