Ineos Grenadier - long-term review

It’s called the Grenadier by LeTech, and right now my plain normal Grenadier is dead to me. All I want is this daft, trans-Icelandic thing on its silly-big wheels with a silly-big row of orange spotlights. I spend an afternoon churning about in the mud and hoot like a hyena the whole time. Short of nosing it up against a tree, it’s essentially unstoppable.

So what’s it got that mine doesn’t? Before we get into that, a word on what it’s for. LeTech is a German modifier of off-roaders. It famously created the G4×4²  for Mercedes and has now partnered with Ineos to work on the Grenadier. The aim is to add a new level of capability to what – as I’ve found out over the last few months – is already a very, very capable 4x4. Ineos claims it’s aimed at rescue services, aid agencies and so on.

But, although prices haven’t yet been announced, I’ll tell you now that it’ll add tens of thousands to the cost of the already expensive Grenadier which means I suspect most will be ordered by wealthy part-time adventurers. Or maybe you just want to fit your Grenadier out for adventure with a few LeTech options, in which case head to the website, it’s addictive.

What they’re getting with the full package is a Grenadier wearing 18in forged alloy wheels clad in BF Goodrich 37in Mud-Terrain tyres, 40mm longer coil springs and shocks, extended bumpers, wheelarches and side runners, a winch and, of course, portal axles.

In case you’re not sure what these are, a quick guide. Most cars with solid axles, such as a regular Grenadier, put the wheels directly at the end of the axles. Portal axles sit higher relative to the wheels, giving the car more ground clearance, and then use a gearing system at each end of the axle to take drive down to the wheel hub. They add cost and complexity obviously, but as well as more clearance (up 186mm in this instance to 450mm) they also help distribute torque forces more gently since there’s typically a gearing down from the axle to the wheel. Plus they just look super cool. And mean you tower over everything.

Once you’ve got in. Now, I have issues with the standard Grenadier here because the doors aren’t massive and there’s no driver’s side A-pillar grab handle so you end up pulling on the steering wheel to hoist yourself up. That goes double for the LeTech. And once in I find it a bit anti-climactic. It’s pretty much the same as mine in here, just another foot higher off the deck. Same off-road controls, only this one is based on a Trialmaster so it gets the locking front and rear diffs that my Fieldmaster lacks.

Earlier in the day I’d been off-roading with a bunch of other Grenadiers, all with triple diffs and knobbly tyres. Keeping up had been great fun. Even when I started slipping backwards down a steep, wet grassy slope while the wheels were still going forwards. Slightly unnerving. But I’d made it through everything, even the cross axle articulation test known as elephant’s footsteps that usually undoes cars with open front and rear diffs, as the unloaded wheel on each axle spins all the power away.

True, I‘d failed first time through as the traction control nipped in and killed my momentum, but second time round with added speed and traction control sent to the naughty step, it barrelled through, bouncing left and right, but performing above and beyond expectations. And that is the thing with this Grenadier; yes, it’s a compromised car on the road, but boy does it know what it's about in the rough. Even when traction runs out on wet grass, you feel confident because you’ve got mechanical communication.

But the LeTech was remarkable. It wasn’t just that it found traction where the standard car had struggled – you expect that when you’ve got much knobblier tyres with a bigger contact patch – it’s that it stayed so level and unruffled while doing it. Instead of pitching one way and another through Nellie’s footsteps, each wheel had astonishing range of movement, and the body remained almost completely level on top.

With light fading and rain falling I tried to chase the LeTech through in my car. Not a chance now. Too wet, too cut up, it flailed about uselessly. It also looked utterly diminutive next to the LeTech, which has grown in all dimensions. The winch-containing bumpers mean it's 145mm longer, track widths are up almost 200mm and it’s 281mm taller overall. And the all important underbody angles are in a different league. Approach and departure angles are up from 36 to 46 degrees and the breakover is improved by 15 degrees to 43. Not once did it scrape anywhere. Plus it can now wade through water a metre deep.

More than that the modifications give it a stance and proportion that suit it brilliantly well. Where my car looks a bit sunken and apologetic, the wheels tucked in and under, this is halfway to being a monster truck and has the attitude to match. And the orange spotlights just look superb and throw an utterly ridiculous amount of light at the trees and scenery.

There is a drawback though: the engine. The LeTech is the first Grenadier I’ve driven with the BMW 3.0-litre 281bhp straight six petrol. It just doesn’t sound right and given the LeTech (unsurprisingly) feels even heavier and more deliberate than mine, 332lb ft of torque isn’t enough. The diesel’s deeper churn and vibration is more reassuring, and it’s hard to argue with 405lb ft at just 1250rpm.

I don’t know what I’d do with the LeTech if I had one, but I wasn’t sure what I’d do with the Grenadier when it first turned up, and it’s turning out to be one of those useful tools that you end up finding jobs for, things it can do that other cars can’t. I suspect the same would happen with the LeTech. With the small proviso that width restrictors might cause it some literally surmountable issues.