It may have the reassuring look of alegendary off-roader, but the Mzansi-bound Ineos Grenadier is an entirely new vehiclefrom a company that has never built one before. International correspondent Greg Kable tests the newcomer’s mettle in the mountains of Austria.

We’re precariously balanced on top of a steep, rocky outcrop. After 10 kmof punishing vertical strikes that tested the suspension to its very limits, the severity of today’s testing has reached its pinnacle.

Up front, the Ineos’ right wheel is hangingin mid-air at full rebound. At the rear, the heavily loaded leftwheel is tucked well into its wheelhouse at a truly improbable camber angle. Welcome to the daunting off-road trail that winds its way up the Schöckl – just outside Graz in Austria – to an altitude of 1 445 metres. It’s here where the Ineos Grenadier is undergoing its latest phase of durability testing.

In a torturous 5-week programme, 2prototypes of the bold new British-designed off-roader are planned to be driven 336 times up and down the murderous mountainside.

Earlier, I was among the first to drive a series of Grenadier prototypes over an off-road handling course. It was demanding, taking in all sorts of obstacles. However, it was nothing compared with the intense pounding that I had just encountered. If there were any lingering doubts about the ability of Ineos, a multinational corporation that found riches in the oil and gas sector, to turn out a world-class off-roader, they’ve just been blown away in spectacular fashion.

It’s a display that has taken us from the wide expanse of valley below to the treacherous 52-degree incline we find ourselves at now without as much as a slight slip-up along the way. After inspecting the scene, I clamber back into the car, select low range, engage the three differential locks and carefully head off again.

I’m nearing the end of the Schöckl’s most demanding section, where the narrow trail becomes ever more technical over perilous weather-worn granite before the summit. However, the extreme conditions are clearly no impediment to the Grenadier, which continues its low-rev progress as if it were just driving to the shops.

There’s a bakkie version coming

Multiple body styles will eventually be available, including a double-cab bakkie.

Over the next few weeks, engineers from Magna Steyr plan to cover some 2 000 km here as part of an overall 1.7-million km durability test programme to be carried out on the model by mid-2022.

This traditional-looking but otherwise contemporary off-roader was dreamed up by Ineos chief executive Sir Jim Ratcliffe (one of Britain’s richest people) and a group of colleagues one evening in The Grenadier pub, close to Ineos’s headquarters in Knightsbridge, central London. Conceived to take up where the original Land Rover Defender left off when production of the British icon finally ended in2016, it’s now at a pivotal stage of development, with less than 3months to go before Ineos plans to begin accepting deposits ahead of (UK) sales starting in March 2022.

To ensure things run as smoothly as possible, Ineos has commissioned Austria’s Magna Steyr – which is responsible for a variety of current production cars, including the BMW Z4, Jaguar I-Pace, Mercedes-Benz G-Class and Toyota GR Supra – to oversee initial prototype builds and the ongoing development activities.

At the same time, Ineos is busy gearing up the former Smart car factory in Hambach, France, which it purchased from Mercedes-Benz in 2019, for Grenadier production. Plans are for annual volumes of up to 30 000 by the middle of the decade.

“Our aim is to build a truly robust four-wheel-drive vehicle,” Ineos Automotive boss Dirk Heilmann says. He reveals that his car will offer a payload of up to 1 000 kg, a braked-trailer towing capacity of 3 500 kg and a 150 kg roof-load rating, adding: “We set out to deliver a high degree of utility, and we haven’t lost sight of this.”

Two versions of the Grenadier will be available from the outset: a5-seater station wagon (the subject of this drive) and a 2-seater commercial vehicle, both based on a standard 2 921-mm wheelbase. Shortly afterwards, Ineos will launch a double-cab pick-up truck and a 7-seater station wagon, both using a longer (3 175 mm) wheelbase (these should reach SA about 6 months after the first units arrive).

Utilitarian with modern features

The interior of the Grenadier is still a well-kept secret.

As well as appealing to private buyers who seeka traditional go-anywhere-do-anything off-roader, Ineos expects its first model to find its niche among tradespeople and farmers, along with companies and government organisations that do their business on the land. Heilmann says market studies Ineos carried out before Grenadier development got underway in earnest revealed that, following the recent shift in emphasis to the Defender, there’s now a gap in the 4×4 market between the likes of the Jeep Wrangler and the Mercedes-Benz G-Class.

It’s hard not to think of the old Defender when you first see the Grenadier. There are obviously some design similarities between the two, including the round headlights, separate fenders, flat windscreen, clamshell bonnet, button-style door handles, exposed door hinges and barn-door-style tailgate. Some will consider the familiar appearance of the new off-roader as a compliment to traditional Land Rover design; others possibly won’t be so diplomatic.

In any case,it looks toughand includes some hugely functional features, including “utility rails”within the body’s side protection that buyers will be able to choose as part of a long list of optional extras. And with 6-stud wheels shod with 265/70-profile Bridgestone Dueler H/T off-road tyres, these prototypes appear ready to take on the very worst roads (and, eventually, even the Eastern Cape’s roads).

The Grenadier isn’t completely utilitarian, however. Features such as LED lights help to give it a modern touch. One of the prototypes we drove even had rear parking sensors. Look more carefully and you notice other modern features, including the latest in sealing technology. “This category of vehicle has in the past not been the best in this particular discipline,” says Heilmann. “Water, gas and dust tightness is one of the areas we’ve concentrated a lot of effort on getting right.”

The basis for the car is a sturdy ladder-frame chassis whose design was commissioned specifically by Ineos. It’s produced in Bielefeld, Germany, by Gestamp (the firm that was responsible for the structure of the Volkswagen Amarok), and it’s combined with a pair of very robust-looking beam axles made by Italian company Carraro.

It’s hardly state of the art, harking back to the layout used by the original Defender, but it fulfils a purpose in providing outstanding ground clearance and is mated withseveral modern systems, including Bosch power steering. Again, as with the old Defender, the Grenadier’s inner body is a steel structure while the body panels, including the fenders, roof and doors, are manufactured from aluminium.

Ineos Grenadier features BMW power

BMW’s straight-six engines do duty under the Grenadier’s bonnet.

Power comes from a pair of BMW-produced turbocharged 3.0-litre inline-6engines. These were chosen for their ability to deliver the sort of relaxed performance and strong torque that Ineos deemed crucial to providing the Grenadier with class-leading off-road performance as well as sufficient refinement to enable it to be used every day on the road.

“We looked at quite a number of possibilities when we started out, both 4-and 6-cylinder,” says Heilmann. “However, we quickly came to the conclusion that the inline-6petrol and diesel engines from BMW were the best fit, from both financial- and packaging standpoints.”

Both engines have been tuned specifically for the new 2.5-tonne-plus off-roader. The turbopetrol delivers peak outputs of 210 kW and 450 Nm of torque, while the turbodiesel offers 186 kW and 500 Nm. These output figures aren’t final, however; Heilmann says the diesel could receive an added 50 Nm by the time the Grenadier goes into production. Drive is sent permanently to each wheel through a standard 8-speed torque-converter automatic transmission manufactured by German transmission specialist ZF and a low-range transfer case from American engineering firm Tremec.

Climbing into the Grenadier puts clearly into focus just how high it sits from the ground. It takes more than just a simple step to enter. The driving position, though, is great, with a large seat and a broad ledge that allows you to rest your elbow atop the door trim – unlike in the original Defender, whose driver’s door always impinged on its driver.The dashboard, which is unfashionably narrow but wonderfully utilitarian in design, is set quite high. But you’re afforded good visibility all round– you see the bonnet and front corners out front, while the mirrors are large enough to provide a good view ofthe rear.

Having been sworn to secrecy on certain elements, we can’t tell you much more about the cabin other than that it will definitely surprise some. It’s architecturally quite traditional and extremely roomy up front, but Ineos has come up with some special touches for the instruments and controls that we think will appeal greatly to the sort of customers it’s targeting.

When we get underway, the apparent strength of that BMW petrol engine and slick action of the auto ‘box initially impress. The Grenadier is a heavy machine (Heilmann puts its kerb weight at somewhere between 2 600 kg and 2 700 kg, at this stage), but there are sufficient reserves – most notably of torque – to give it more than reasonable step-off and in-gear qualities on the open road.

What’s the Grenadier like at speed?

Visual links to the previous-generation Defender are obvious, but the Grenadier is new from the ground up.

It’s fairly refined, too. Perhaps not at a luxury-car level, but apart from some distant transfer-case whine in the prototype we drove, the mechanical properties are definitely well ahead of the clunky Defenders I remember driving a decade ago.

However, while the upright windscreen does wonders for visibility, it and the big side mirrors contribute to quite a lot of wind buffeting at speed. This, among decisions about the gearing, is one of the reasons that the production Grenadier will be limited to 160 kph.

With all of that ground clearance and those rigid beam axles, you don’t expect the Grenadier to offer its driver too much in terms of handling finesse. There’s lots of body roll when it’s turning, owing to its fairly soft spring rates and masses of travel, but the rate of roll is quite progressive, building with the steering input to keep you well aware of just how much you can push through the corner.

The prototypes we drove had yet to receive the latest steering software. Right now, they work at a rather long-winded 3.5 turns lock to lock, giving them a less than precise feel at higher speeds and lack of self-centring of the steering wheel. A 13.5-metre turning circle also hampers overall manoeuvrability at lower speeds. “We’re working on it,” says Heilmann. “There are some solutions in the pipeline that we think will greatly improve it in this respect.”

Even with that substantial roll, the Grenadier can be coaxed to carry quite a bit of speed into corners; but with all that weight to contend with, it doesn’t take long before the off-road biased tyres lose their grip. This car is old fashioned in many respects, but its rather relaxed movements form a huge part of its appeal. Suffice to say it dislikes being hurried and responds best to measured driving inputs…

Summary

Prototype models should be heading to SA before the end of 2021.

Ineos will divulge a lot of vital off-road-relevant statistics about the Grenadier in the coming months – approach, departure and breakover angles, wading depth etc – but the sheer ability of the Grenadier over the more technical sections of the Schöckl is proof that the decision to employ a traditional body-on-frame design was the right one. No modern-day monocoque could ever hope to provide quite the same degree of axle articulation, spring travel or sheer climbing ability.

It can do things that off-roaders of more modern construction can only dream of. It also feels wonderfully engineered, with an almost Teutonic feel to the rigidity of its structure and weighting of various functions, including the door and tailgateclosures. With development still ongoing, it’s going to be some time before we get to experience the Grenadier in its final production form.

Right now, however, the signs are looking good. Ineos’ newcomerdoesn’t rewrite the automotive rule book, but then, it never set out to. It’s refreshingly authentic in what it offers, with the sort of driving characteristics that will no doubt appeal to a select group of people who have long been ignored by traditional carmakers. It has bags of charm in its on-road qualities and, from what we’ve seen so far, it’s virtually unbeatable in low-range off-road conditions – andmakesfew excuses for its traditional construction along the way.

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