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Article Date: Mon, August 30, 2010
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Land Rover's Secret Test Facility
By JOSEPH V. KUCA
For decades Land Rover has maintained a secret test track in England's Malverns Hills, in Herefordshire at a lovely estate, Eastnor Castle, in the wild and picturesque west country. What Bletchley Park was to UK code breakers in World War II, Eastnor Castle is to Land Rover engineers.
Situated on the 5,000 acre Eastnor Castle Estate, at the foot of Malverns Hills in beautiful Herefordshire, Land Rover has a long-standing relationship with the ancestral owners of the stunning Eastnor Castle. Early on, engineering tests on the first Range Rover were conducted secretly on the estate and, as their names suggest, every track and route throughout the sprawling country estate can tell a story: Gearbox Hill, Seager's, The Steps, Gravestones and Roger's Quarry.
Today, in addition to being an engineering test facility and corporate training and testing center, there is a Land Rover Experience Driving School on the grounds which enthusiasts can access to enjoy a day of off-road adventure just like the professionals! The centre is in a newly refurbished building on the Eastnor Castle grounds known as the Bothy and is a delicate balance of an old estate building combined with 21st century technology.
Land Rover aficionados can experience the true spirit of adventure in its purest form over 5000 acres, on 30 miles of carefully managed trails designated by the British Trust as an 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'. Eastnor provides highly unique adventure opportunities that encourage drivers to push both their vehicle and themselves to the limit. It's an opportunity to tackle everything from training slopes to the most demanding obstacles. The terrain here is so varied and challenging that Eastnor has been used for decades as a secret test facility to refine and test the off-road capability of every new Land Rover produced.
Eastnor has seen royalty secure off-road driver training as well as being the training and staging area for some of the world's toughest off-road races, challenges, and expeditions.
Courses at Eastnor are regularly used to improve the skills of British police and ambulance forces, the military, highway agency patrols, EMT and First Responder ambulance crews, search and rescue organizations and many others whose professions require them to operate at full-tilt behind the wheel of a Land Rover. If you're in the UK and you use a four-wheel drive vehicle for the purposes of work, you get your essential health and safety training here. It's that simple.
For more interesting, new LAND ROVER FACTS check the www.LandRoverMonmouth.com homepage every Monday.
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