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CHRIS HARRIS: You've probably all heard of Bowler.
It's the company that made something called the Wildcat,
a crazy, Paris-Dakar rally-raid machine that looked
like a Land Rover Defender--
well, on the outside at least.
It delivered its first car in 1986.
Now, Bowler doesn't make the Wildcat anymore.
It makes something called the EXR.
We're going to drive it today.
But Bowler's customers have shown an interest in having an
EXR for the road.
And this is the development car for that project--
the EXRS.
And it has 550 horsepower.
Just look at the thing.
I'm here with Ed Cobley, who is an off-road driving guru,
who knows more about these things than most people and
how to drive them.
So first I want to ask him a bit about the spec of the car.
And then I want him to tell me how I should apply my
knowledge of that mechanical layout to driving the car.
So first of all, we've got the standard Jaguar Land Rover
supercharged V8.
How much horsepower?
ED COBLEY: This is running about 550
horsepower at the moment.
CHRIS HARRIS: How much torque?
ED COBLEY: About 700 pound-feet of torque.
CHRIS HARRIS: So it's enough.
ED COBLEY: It's enough.
CHRIS HARRIS: And we reckoned 1,700 kilograms?
ED COBLEY: Around 1,730, I think, is
about the exact number.
Yeah.
CHRIS HARRIS: OK, so at the moment, it's on a street tire.
But we've got an off-road type suspension.
ED COBLEY: An off-road suspension.
We're just looking at refining the suspension, at the moment,
for the on-road market.
We've got the off-road market wrapped up, really, with the
suspension.
So it's just something we're dialing at the moment, looking
at different manufacturers.
So it's very much driven in an orientation of a very reactive
manner, almost like a rally-style at the moment, in
the way we drive the car.
CHRIS HARRIS: So torque splits, four-wheel drive,
permanent four-wheel drive.
ED COBLEY: Yeah.
CHRIS HARRIS: We've got a locking diff at the rear and a
locking diff in the middle.
ED COBLEY: Exactly that.
So we can have a torque split of 50 to the front, 50 to the
back, and then an equal distribution--
25 at the rear each.
So it really makes it quite driveable on
an oversteered situation.
CHRIS HARRIS: So is it 50-50 lock the whole time?
ED COBLEY: This one actually is.
Yeah, the race car is a 60-40 power split.
This is a 50-50 split.
CHRIS HARRIS: OK.
This incredible little private venue we're at-- we can't say
where we are, but it's beautiful.
However, it's about as fraught with danger as
anywhere I've ever been.
We've got a nice water hazard in the middle.
And we've got immovable objects in the form of trees
and rocky banks all around the outside.
And we're kind of hoping to let this thing
move around a bit.
So I am-- it has to be said--
*** myself.
Because it's expensive.
And actually, I'm quite expensive as well.
So I don't want to hurt myself.
So we're looking to maybe have some attitude of the car
before the apex.
ED COBLEY: Exactly.
CHRIS HARRIS: Gas and drive it through.
ED COBLEY: Exactly.
I think the old saying's a Scandinavian flick.
Do I believe right?
CHRIS HARRIS: In a 1,700 kilogram, 700 foot-pound of
torque, SUV on street tires.
ED COBLEY: That's right.
Yeah.
CHRIS HARRIS: [BLEEP]
mental, man.
In drive, it drives like a normal automatic.
We've got no interior here.
This is a development car.
But I've got a Range Rover steering wheel.
Falls away quite nicely, lot's of good engine noise--
gurgling, bubbling.
I'm sitting high.
I haven't got much steering feel.
I've got a normal Pirelli street tire on there, running
a 21-inch rim.
And driven like this, on this rather technical little
circuit, it feels fine.
It feels quite pleasant, and it feels quite pokey.
What it doesn't prepare you for is what happens when you
push a little bit harder.
Coming to this little bottom corner here now.
And I'll use a bit more throttle.
And then all bloody hell breaks loose.
That's biting.
100, 110, 120, 125.
This is one of the silliest cars I've ever driven.
You can back it into corners.
There's hints of oversteer everywhere.
I've got more yaw then you get on a cross channel ferry in a
force nine gale.
It's remarkable.
It's got immense traction too, immense traction.
Look at my surroundings.
I'm effectively in someone's garden where there just
happens to be a small racetrack.
What a thing.
What a place.
Obviously I'm aggressive at 85.
I'll tell you what, for 155 grand, there aren't going to
be many rivals for this thing.
Look at that.
[INAUDIBLE] oversteer.
Oversteer in third gear.
You get that in a G-wagen?
I don't think you do.
This must be the most niche vehicle of all niches.
It really is for people that find the G63 or G65 just a
little bit lacking in performance.
So if you own a diamond mine, and that's what you want to
do, you want to get to work and back as fast as possible,
then this is your vehicle.
Just think about the driving styles of [INAUDIBLE].
It's fairly specific about the way you've got to
back the car in.
You do.
You need to [INAUDIBLE] before the [INAUDIBLE].
See, you just back it in there.
The car wants to oversteer.
[INAUDIBLE].
And it follows you around.
The problem I have is that there is a bit of a sort of
oversteer window to get through.
And to judge that, how much circuit you need to let the
car wash out, it's quite difficult.
And the course is quite narrow.
I don't want to crowd something.
But this is bonkers, absolutely bonkers.
Never experienced anything--
I have to say-- quite like it.
1.7 tons with full oversteer in someone's back garden.
This thing is a proper [INAUDIBLE].
You just can't believe the way it handles the bumps.
Oversteer everywhere.
You sort of try and look for a bit of a racing line.
Oh, there's a pheasant.
He's going to get it.
You've got to take speed off for these slower corners.
But it's quite rear biased.
It's just drifting everywhere.
The thing weighs 1,950 kilograms.
Well, that's with 400 liters of fuel on board.
One of the best things I've driven in a while.
We need to go into a rally raid, Neil.
This is awesome, this thing.
It just feels like a big, slightly cumbersome rally car.
But it wants to move around.
It wants to oversteer.
And again, with these off-road vehicles, what your eyes tell
you is coming up, the vehicle never transmits to you.
You just can't believe the way it deals with the bumps and
everything else.
Wow.
Please excuse my ridiculous seating position.
A 6'5" German was in here before me.
But that is awesome, completely awesome.
Woo.
It isn't mainstream then, the EXRS.
But there isn't much like it out there, because it isn't
even a G63 rival.
It's a potential rally-raid winner with a trimmed
interior, oh, and 550 horsepower.
And as of June 2012, it's kind of semi-official.
Much like Mercedes had an agreement with AMG in the '90s
before buying it, Land Rover is now working to help Bowler.
All the EXRS needs now is a proper name like Growler.
That's it, the Bowler Growler.
Like it.