Been There, Dune That

Dune bashing in the freshly updated ford endeavour

- Simran Rastogi

The difference between offroading and dune bashing is that, in the sand, if you can’t make it up an obstacle, it’s only because you’re stuck – no second chances. Coming from Vikas Tanwar, rally driver, accomplished off-roader and the man leading us into India’s largest desert, those words hang heavy, as we find ourselves staring up towards the rolling hills of sand of the Thar desert. More so, because we’re in Ford’s new baby, the refreshed Endeavour.

While we’re not all-too-familiar with driving in the sand, we’re well-versed with the Endeavour, which Ford hasn’t changed drastically for 2019, because, why mess with a winning formula? Instead it gets a few added goodies to make living with it easier, like the keyless entry, push button start and hands-free boot release. This, apart from a new grille, front skid plate, wheels and a colour that matches the desert, you know, to be able to tell the new one from the outgoing model. We’re more interested in the 3.2-litre under the hood, unchanged as well, especially since we get to try out the Sand mode in Ford’s Terrain Management System. So with the familiar mountain of torque, all 470Nm of it, we set off to bash dunes in dual-zone air-conditioned comfort.