Or maybe, “he came in without shit and they gave him a knife”. I know people who would describe it exactly like that.
Suppose you own a Range Rover, a vehicle with an image of ultimate, unstoppable capability. Surely you would give a friend a very short tow?
Watch the video in the article.
The video is extremely frustrating. It shows the RR getting into position, then smash cuts to it being thoroughly stuck. We don’t get to see how it got stuck.
Having said that, I know how it got stuck really. I have a fair bit of experience of sand driving and have seen too many numpties get stuck in this way. There is a lot of technique to it - most of which I lack. But what I do know is “floor the accelerator and spin the wheels till you have dug yourself down to the axles” ain’t it.
She said: ‘Some local people did go down and give them some advice to try and use the jet skis to get it out the sand, but they were quite rude to him and gave him the impression that they knew what they were doing and told them to leave them alone.
‘They had the jet skis attached to the van to begin with, which definitely didn’t help with the towing. It was absolutely stupid.
Good luck with those insurance claims.
I have to admit I didn’t RTFA before I made my last post. Having done so, I now read this:
“Despite having sand driving mode and boasting 567 brake horsepower, that too got stuck.”
If the owner of the RR thought horsepower had anything to do with it, he was doomed (I accept the article doesn’t say this). Horsepower is close to counterproductive on soft sand because spinning the wheels - which HP “helps” with - is a sure way to getting bogged.
I won’t bore you with the whole funny story but I was once driving on a beach when a police vehicle got stuck. It was a V8 Toyota Landcruiser. There was an extremely experienced old timer there helping. The police officer commented “I always assumed that the V8 would get me out of this” or words to that effect and the old timer couldn’t roll his eyes hard enough. The police officer was assuming that he would have to be towed out but the old timer said “mind if I try getting it out for you?”. The police officer said “be my guest” and the old-timer drove it out in about 2 minutes without so much as shovelling sand from under the wheels.
It’s about careful technique, not horsepower.
That’s why the classic VW Beetle-based dune buggies made do with about 100 hp.
My vote is for “without shoes”.
Yeah, that must be it!
Power to weight ratio is worth a lot. As is footprint to weight ratio. The classic VW dune buggy scored very well in both metrics. And as a result was fun for noobs to play with in the sand, with rather little getting stuck.
Serious sand rails took it even farther, weighing less and with even larger rear = driving tires. Sand rail - Google Image Search.
Conversely, a RR, or most any factory SUV, sucks at footprint to weight ratio. It might have a decent peak (high RPM) power to weight ratio, but what you need is torque at low RPM. And enough tire to couple the torque you have to the sand you’ve got, not just spin & dig. Aye, there’s the rub.
I thought they were about 40 hp. I’m guessing people souped them up?
You don’t even need that. Low gearing will get you enough torque and RPM doesn’t matter. The most sand capable vehicle I ever owned had a 1.6l normally aspirated engine. With a low range gearbox it had buckets more torque than was ever required.
Either that, or else IIRC, you could fit a Porsche 356 engine into a Beetle frame.
We’ve helped many a tourist get their expensive cars out of minimal snow and ice situations.
Like the sand, spin the wheels and you’re done (often, you’ve just dug through the snowpack to the ice underneath).
Rocking slowly and knowing just when to apply a touch of accelerator will work, but usually after the tourist yells “This is getting us nowhere! Floor it!”
It’s worse than that, even. He was citing the brake horsepower. Engine horsepower is at least relevant, even if it’s not useful. But being able to brake really hard? What’s that supposed to do for you?
Good advice from everyone here, regarding becoming unstuck.
I learned how to drive as a youngster in a VW. bug We would take them to the snow covered parking lots and just let crank the wheel hard and off to the spin factory we went.
Got into a spot of trouble after driving on sand which was sitting on top of snow after a storm, we let some of the air out of the tires to get more traction. Otherwise, beach driving was reasonable, if you avoided dunes and soft spots, and turning around into them.
(you could also drop the motor yourself, onto the spare tire put underneath, in an emergency) I never had a 4 wheeled vehicle, but the advice I dispensed to folks, was that 4 wheel drive was the most useful if you got stuck using 2 wheel drive… to help get yourself out…otherwise, for most, its just dead weight. Nowadays cars 4 wheel drive transmissions are so complex, I have no idea how they distribute power. I have seen a fair amount of large 4 wheel trucks, on various beaches…just basically digging themselves deeper into the hole they are digging!
“Brake horsepower” refers to engine output power measured using a testing machine called a brake dynamometer. Essentially measuring the engine’s ability to overcome calibrated drag. See Horsepower → Brake Horsepower - Wikipedia for more.
But yeah, a misleading kind of name when exposed to non-motorhead consumers.
Brake horsepower is the power at the engine’s crankshaft before drivetrain power losses. It has nothing to to with stopping the truck.
Or have I been whooshed?
ETA: Missed LSL’s reply just above.
I know that brake horsepower is the one that Top Gear always quoted.
Nope. That’s shaft horsepower. Brake horsepower can be measured at any point between the flywheel and the tires. It’s named for the machine doing the measuring, not how / where the measurement is taken. And in fact “shaft horsepower” is normally measured with, you guessed it, a brake dynamometer. But one attached directly to the engine.
The wiki I cited goes into some of the history. At one time Detroit quoted BHP numbers taken at the flywheel. Becasue that way they got the biggest number, and marketers lurves them some bigger numbers. Later SAE standards forced more truth in labeling, and now the “official” BHP number for cars is taken at the tires. So after all drivetrain losses.
Bottom line being BHP is a semi-BS number unless you know the test conditions used.
How? Was the guy a butler?