"Don't be surprised," says the trustingly grinning instructor, "there is a section of asphalt on the route, that's right, you didn't get lost." That's good to know, because dusty paths lie behind us on the edge of the Vineyards, ahead of us are dusty paths at the edge of the vineyards, and down in the fairly vertical dip the Range Rover dives into muddy mud just before we cross a waist-deep river.
Holger Apple
Editor in business, responsible for “Technology and Engine”.
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It's an advantage not to have a particularly stingy relationship with money or to dare to look at the price list afterwards, for example at the moment when the steam jet is spraying the dirt out of the rims in chunks and the original exterior color is slowly reappearing.
The test car costs around 200,000 euros, which makes it not even the most expensive in the program, but by far the dirtiest on the day, which fills us and the instructors with a certain pride.
Anyone can shine on the boulevard.
But stoically trundling down slopes at 3 km/h on the electronic reins without foot on the brake, the crest of which can only be seen thanks to a camera looking down into the abyss along the bonnet, that is the higher art of off-road driving.
It takes some effort to give the final gas push at the spoiler lip, although the eye only sees blue sky, but the clever head knows that the front axle is going downhill directly.
The screen in the car leaves no doubt, it shows an escape into the valley that would require crampons on foot or marked as a black slope on skis, as deep black.
On the opposite side, it goes up the slope again in a similarly unimaginable extent, in madness, gently applauding mountain goats appear to us at the edge of the path.
The other day around the campfire, a psychologist friend of mine introduced the secrets of island talent, the guys from Great Britain certainly have theirs, and without any technical developmental disabilities.
It manifests itself in a recently modernized Land Rover Defender, which from birth crosses deserts and forests as if they were the A3. And in a Range Rover, which is now in its fifth generation and is pushing onto Fifth Avenue or Goethestrasse, of course there freshly dressed up.
What he can do off-road and what the British home side think he must be able to do remains between us in front of the entrance of Louis Vuitton or Wellendorff.
Whether it takes an SUV up to 5.25 meters long to transport up to seven people in the style of a yacht, this question can be asked.
The market answers them in a clear way.
Exactly 20 years ago, Porsche dared to break the taboo and placed its sports car alongside the Cayenne.
Today, the luxurious SUV and its compact brother, the Macan, are among Porsche's most stable sources of income.
The success is so resounding that everything that has a reputation in the industry is following suit or has long since followed suit.
Mercedes-Benz even offers its large GLS as an exuberant Maybach variant, which together with the BMW X7, which has been refreshed for the summer, is certainly one of the direct competitors of the Range Rover.
And next to it the G-Class, which is also equipped with outstanding climbing properties,
which is also so appreciated because of its original character, which has been preserved over the decades, that it is sold out for three years.
Saving tradition for the future is no easy task.
Both Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover have succeeded in doing so.