How fast can you get to the snow? With the Indian summer upon us, this is actually a genuine question on our minds rather than a rhetorical one. To find out, we at Team evo India and Engage 4x4 India embarked on an epic adventure, setting a new national record for the fastest Sand 2 Snow drive with the Mahindra Thar!
From 40 degrees to minus 4 degrees
Our Sand 2 Snow record run would start off from the Sam sand dunes in Jaisalmer and we would drive to the north, across Punjab and Haryana all the way to the snow in Himachal Pradesh. We would be covering a distance of more than 1200km during this drive. According to Google Maps, the time taken to undertake this drive is 24 hours and our team would be attempting to better that, with the record being validated by an adjudicator from the India Book of Records.
While driving from Rajasthan to the Himalayas may sound like a pretty straightforward affair, attempting to do the same trip in less than 24 hours with minimal breaks would be a tall order. We would be needing a skilled set of hands, safe and reliable drivers that could also push on when required, and for that, we reached out to our friends from the motorsport community. First up was India’s fastest rally driver – Gaurav Gill. The 7-time INRC Champion and 3-time APRC Champion possesses plenty of skill behind the wheel. Our next call was to Suresh Rana, who has won the gruelling Raid de Himalaya rally 10 times! Rana's success in the Desert Storm is well documented too, and given that the mountains are his home turf, it made perfect sense for us to call upon his skill. Also joining our roster of drivers was Madan Choudhary, who pushes the limits of Thars in the sand dunes on a daily basis and has made the 4x4 capable machine that it is. These drivers were joined by the Ed Sirish Chandran, who drives his cherry red long term Thar absolutely everywhere with a boombox thumping in the back!
We’re driving the Mahindra Thar
Our weapon of choice for this record run was Mahindra’s highly capable off-roader the Thar. During the course of our run, we would be tackling extreme terrain in both the sand dunes of Rajasthan as well as the snow up in the North. And as we travelled from one harsh terrain to another, we would be munching miles and holding good cruising speeds on the Indian highways. In term 4x4 SUVs, they’re usually adept at handling either the off-road or the on-road bit better than the other. But with the Thar? There are no such compromises – it handles the off-road sections and highway cruising with equal ease!
We will be driving two Mahindra Thars, a hard top and a soft top, during our Sand 2 Snow record run and both were powered by the mStallion TGDI petrol engine that produces 150bhp and our Thars were equipped with the automatic transmission for a completely relaxed driving experience.
Excited to know more about our Sand 2 Snow record run? Stay tuned to this space and our social handles!