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Somehow, when the Scorpio takes on the elements it has a kind of verve and spring in its step that seems to be lacking on-road. Because of the lower weight of the mHawk engine, the steering has a bit more feel and that makes it easier off-road when you want to know if the surface under you will give away or stay firm. Despite the changed suspension setup, the ride quality has the same sort of springiness the regular Scorpio comes packaged with. Maybe it's a tad more, though somehow it seems to disappear when driven hard on bad roads.
And sometimes those bad roads give you an opportunity to put two wheels in the air and get involved with an imaginary argument with Newton. With 29 kgm of twist from its 2.2-litre engine, the Scorpio literally ploughs through mud banks and mounds of sand. Engage four-high and with torque being evenly split between the front and the rear axles, the Scorpio becomes a lot of fun. Disengage it on a flat open surface like our mini-Rann you see in the pictures and you can go sideways all day. Though you do need to build up some momentum, it is a lot of fun and provoke it some more and raising two wheels on the farther side isn't difficult, though at no point do you feel would it topple over.
At the end of it all, you have to ask if the additional amount of Rs 68 k for the manual and Rs 98 k for the automatic 4wds makes sense for the off-road enthusiast? In a way it does, since the Scorpio even in this guise is capable of going through most off-road trails, while providing you with decent on-road ability and creature comforts. But if you want a Mahindra that does all that and can do some serious wheel articulation tricks and tackle some even tougher terrain, then I suggest writing to Anand Mahindra – no wait a minute, doing a signature campaign and clammer for the export-only Thar. Maybe, it will call for the laws of gravity being re-written all over again!
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