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The eXtreme Test Track @ Shukers

Experience the thrill and excitement of putting a brand new Land Rover through its paces on the eXtreme Test Track.

Whether you just wish to see what the test track is all about, or you want to book the track for a teambuilding event, Shukers offers you its historic test track to sample what your Land Rover is REALLY made for.

Driving on the road just doesn't do the vehicle justice, and our purpose-built track has been specifically designed with more than 10 challenging features to put any 4x4 through its paces.

Built at the Shrewsbury site using the rubble and waste from the demolition of the old Shukers Battlefield showroom, the track was built in 1999 for a cost of around £80,000. Since then, the track has gained many new features, including a 'log run'—a carefully spaced, 25 metre stretch of railway sleepers, designed to demonstrate the vehicle's suspension and ride damping.

Other features include:

A 'rapid incline' hill with steep climb and descent
A set of 'rocks' for demonstrating suspension articulation
The 'Hex Causeway' of steps
A 'staircase' incline
The popular water trough, to demonstrate traction (and just for fun!)
A negative-camber sharp corner
The Bridge—where did the ground go?
The Valley—feel the vehicle be suspended on just two wheels!
The Drop—to test the vehicles descent control... straight down with NO PEDALS!


At the top of the incline	Going down, no pedals	A tricky left turn into the water	And now just water under the bridge	Up the incline... all you see is sky!	Up the staircase, no problems

The track has to be experienced to fully appreciate how much fun it really is, so we sent our web marketing consultant, Chris Jones of Pixelmakers Limited, around the track with Shrewsbury branch track veteran Martin Morrey... here's Chris's account of his journey around the track one sunny Friday afternoon:

Shuker's manager Vernon Hogg gave me an opportunity today: Ride the test track, or never know what I'm missing.

How could I refuse that? I'm a long-standing Range Rover owner, and I've been green-laning many times around Shropshire and Wales, but he assured me that the track still had plenty to offer.

He put me in the hands of Martin, who I was assured was not only one of the first employees ever to drive the track back in 1999, but he's also one of the most capable of demonstrating the track to me without me having to check my life insurance policy.

The sun was shining, and as I awaited my 'pilot' I had a wander around the track with Vernon. On foot, the track seems huge... it twists and turns like a malformed concrete snake over grass humps at the rear of the Shrewsbury dealership. The features of the track looked a little daunting, and as we stepped from climb to descent, steps to rocks, I suddenly thought to myself: I'm glad I'm not doing the driving!

After comfortably reassuring myself that these guys MUST know what they're doing, I managed to convert my apprehension into excitement. Until, that is, I saw 'the Valley'—two opposing walls of 45° concrete with a valley between them.

"Your head will be inches from the concrete when Martin takes you through here, Chris" Vernon assured me. Thanks, Vernon.

It wasn't long before Vernon handed my fragile, trembling self over to Martin. And I was completely shocked when Martin walked me over to a gorgeous, brand-new 2010 model Discovery. Surely we're not going round here in this?

"Hop in," said Martin, "and I'll give you a brief overview of the vehicle."

As he fired up the engine, all sorts of lights and gizmos came to life. As he turned a large dial by the gear selector, he explained he was putting the vehicle into off-road mode. He then selected the low-range gearbox as I felt the vehicle 'pumping up' the suspension ready for the off. I fastened my seatbelt, and felt quite relieved that my lunch had already started digesting.

First off was the log run. Driving slowly, it did literally feel as if we were driving over sleepers. My seatbelt gripped me as I felt myself being pounded up and down in the seat. We then reversed, and did the run again but this time at speed. The vehicle's computers adjusted the supsension and being fair, it ironed out the bumps this time. Very impressive.

What came next can only be described as 'scary'. We entered the 'Valley', and before I had time to ask questions, Martin was 4 feet higher than I was as we banked on the valley wall, practically on the verge of tipping the vehicle over—or so it felt.

And Vernon was right... I was almost kissing the concrete which was looming outside the passenger window.

What Martin did next was to turn left so that the passenger front wheel started climbing the valley wall on my side. We 'bridged' the wall, and the vehicle was pretty much level. And it just hung there, suspended diagonally by the front left and rear right wheels... presumably the other two wheels were about 4 feet from the ground.

As Martin gave it some throttle, the vehicle see-sawed... demonstrating the traction control delivering power only to the wheels which were in contact with the ground. Again, very impressive.

We left the Valley and continued around the track to what appeared at first as a vertical climb. The Discovery had no problems whatsoever scaling the ascent to the top, with nothing visible through the windscreen but sky! At the top, we couldn't even see the way down, it was really that steep. Quite unsettling, and even more so when Martin told me he was going to let the vehicle crawl down on its own.

He tapped the accelerator and then took his feet from the pedals as we pointed straight down. His confidence in the vehicle was not unfounded, as we gently and under full control descended back down to the level of the track. Wow.

Through the water dip, and then onto a series of concrete rocks, and the Causeway—mimicking the Giant's Causeway of hexagonal rising towers. The vehicle just dipped and dived, the rubber seemingly in contact with the ground the whole time. Actually more comfortable than it was when Vernon and I walked over them!

We then did the 'staircase'—another incline/descent—with 'stairs'. This is as close as I'll ever get to the Italian Job, I thought to myself.

And then we did it all again. And this time, rather than the intense feeling that Martin was a nutter, I felt excited to experience each part of the track, and enjoy the superb ride of the Discovery.

When it was all over, we parked up and I stood back and took a look at the vehicle from the outside, bearing in mind what it had just done. And with a little sadness that it was all over, I walked back to my humble hatchback wanting more.

Chris Jones, MD, Pixelmakers Limited, September 18th 2009

The eXtreme Test Track @ Shukers

Related pages

Pixelmakers web design

Shukers Newsletter: August 2010

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