Land Rover Owners Adventure Club

Driver Training Day - Tixover 4 November 2006

What an excellent day! The arrangement is simple enough. A small number of vehicles (4 on the day I went) gather at the LRE Rockingham Castle site for 9.30 AM. We get a short talk about 4WD vehicles and technology and some basic advice and guidance. Then it was off to the famous Tixover quarry for a days instruction. Our instructor was Tony who was exceptionally good at showing us the ropes. We would gather together as a group and go through our next task, then each driver took it in turn while Tony gave suitable directions. The specifics or our own vehicle were taken into account so, for example, the Discovery 1 has a diff-lock while my Discovery 2 does not but it does have traction control.

After covering a few basics like simple hill-climbs and descents and what do do if they did not work, we all set off for a follow-the-leader tour of the quarry to try out what we had been taught. The tour started off gently then got more extreme.

During the day we covered most of the basics in the same fashion and had plenty of practice. The day finished off with a 30 minute free-range session in the quarry. From pictures I have seen of Tixover events with vehicles all over the place, it was a rare luxury to share the site with only four other vehicles.

I would recommend this experience to anyone. It is only £55 for a single driver in your own vehicle and is worth every penny. Although only an introductory course it will give you tremendous confidence in yourself and your vehicle along with a healthy regard for how not to stuff it up.

Sadly for Tony his 110, having done sterling work all day, packed up on the way back. Fortunately, we were right behind and managed to tow him home. Another first for me!

Here are some pictures: