Off-Road Course Construction
October 5-6, 2018
Camp Jeep piggybacked onto Cal Jam, a giant, Jeep-sponsored music festival in San Bernadino, CA. With headliner Foo Fighters (and featuring other huge acts such as Iggy Pop and Tenacious D), we knew that we would have the perfect audience/demographic to deliver an authentic, on-brand experience to.
Given the gorgeous mountain backdrop of Glen Helen Raceway Park, it made sense for this Jeep off-road course to be built from mostly organic materials. We supplemented the Jeep mobile mountain with formed dirt articulation mounds, berms, off-camber tilts, a side-hill wedge, and a boulder pile. Building organic off-road tracks is one of Gordinier Group’s core competencies and this course didn’t disappoint.
Both days of the festival saw guests lining up in droves to experience rides in the new 2018 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon as well as the new 2019 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk and the new Jeep Compass Trailhawk.
Gordinier Group pro drivers were behind the wheel, navigating the new Jeep vehicles through the extreme obstacles while delivering product info along the way. Feedback from the guests was great at this event.
Hats off to the Jeep and FCA for continuing to sniff out big events with just the right mix of interested guests.
The brand new Mahindra Roxor was introduced to the media and dealers over a 3-day event at the San Antonio AlamoDome, and the Gordinier Group was there to build and operate the off-road course.
If you aren’t familiar with Mahindra, they are an enormous ($19B), Indian company, who produces a large line of vehicles overseas as well as owning a large segment of big agriculture equipment abroad and in the US. The new Roxor will create a segment all its own – something between a side-by-side and a Jeep Wrangler. At first glance, the vehicle obviously has Wrangler visual cues (Mahindra has maintained license from Willy’s since the 1940’s to build this vehicle), but with its 2.5L turbo diesel motor, manual transmission and leaf-sprung suspension (and the fact that it’s not street legal in the US), the similarities end there. What it is, is a super fun and very capable off-road only vehicle that feels very durable, well-made, and appears to be able to chug through the ugliest of trails with ease (as well as being able to tow 3,490 lbs). It seems perfect for ranch or farm use and it would be great fun on difficult off-road trails such as Rubicon and Moab. You can read more about the Roxor below.
Dealers and media outlets converged in San Antonio, eager to learn about the Roxor and excited to get behind the wheel. GG operators built a course in the AlamoDome parking lot that both challenged the vehicle and driver, but was still able to throughput the several hundred amped dealers. As an added challenge for the course design, all Roxor test drive units had manual transmissions (as well as 2-speed transfer cases). This can sometimes be tricky when the public is driving. Luckily, the Roxor had so much low-end torque, it was easy for novice manual drivers to crawl over the boulder pile, log tilt, side hill, and other steep obstacles created for this unique test drive.
February 13-15, 2018
Ram Trucks had a lot to offer guests of the World’s Largest Agriculture Show, in Tulare, California.
Not only did Ram bring two of the new 2019 1500 DT models for display, but they also offered 2 experiential opportunities – an off-road ride and a towing drive where guests could get behind the wheel to really feel Ram’s towing capabilities. In fact, the headliner of the tow fleet at World Ag Show was a 3500 Limited dually, with the 6.7 Cummins turbo diesel and max tow package. It’s hard to imagine a more capable tow rig. This one was saddled with a Big Tex gooseneck trailer that held a 15,000 lb Case tractor. That sounds like a lot of weight when you factor in the extra weight of the trailer, but with a maximum towing capacity of over 30,000 lbs (and 930 lb. ft. of torque), it was an easy haul. Many guests were shocked at how easily that truck was able to tow that payload and how comfortable it felt doing it.
This year’s show had great weather many interested and enthusiastic farmers, making it a great event for Ram!
Gordinier Group teamed up with longtime partner George P. Johnson to deliver a 7-week program at TAC – the birthplace of the modern Jeep Wrangler.
In an effort to boost morale at the plant, the Jeep Immersion at TAC was designed to give employees an opportunity to grow their enthusiasm for the brand. Employees from each department in the plant spent a full day learning about Jeep history, participating in team-building activities and ultimately driving the vehicles that they build on a challenging off-road course.
Gordinier Group was charged with designing and constructing the off-road courses and providing drivers and safety spotters to operate them. We developed two courses – an extreme ‘Rubicon Only’ course that our drivers took passengers on as well as a ‘Trail Rated’ course that was driven by the employees with our spotters on hand to help them to navigate the course.
We came into this event with the experience earned last summer at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant (JNAP) Jeep Immersion under our belt. The timing and logistics of getting over 100 employees safely through both courses each day had been dialed in, and guests LOVED the experience. Participants used off-road driving lessons given by GG drivers on the Rubicon course to pilot their Wranglers through the Trail Rated course without incident.
Activating an event in Toledo at the home of the Wrangler was a special opportunity for our drivers, who are all die-hard Wrangler fans. It didn’t go unnoticed that just a few feet away, 2018 Wrangler JLs were rolling off of the line… Exciting times for Jeep fans!
Below you will dfin a couple of clips that appeared on local Toledo media sites:
Toledo Blade article and videos
