Afternoon Newbie Desert Drive - Pink Rock - Sharjah - 22 Dec 2024

[Frederic]

Very nice drive @Gaurav ! Keeping clear from all the ATV's, Desert Safari Boys, and motorbikes was a challenge in itself  

For newbies the additional challenge in this terrain is to learn to approach dunes with enough momentum, more than they are used too due to the cross-tracks.

Often i saw gents fighting their way up a dune and generating lots of counter steer instead of approaching it on a slightly higher line and following the curvature of the dune itself. 

One trick you can help to avoid too much steering in the desert is to think of your steering wheel as a clock, with 12 as your center point. Now ideally, when driving you should be mostly steering between 9 and 12 when going left, and between 12 and 3 when going right:

The main reason is when you turn too sharp, the sand builds up in front of your tires and you will have to fight that sand with more throttle, which is not good practice and would lead eventually to a tire pop-out. 

If you observe more experienced drivers, you will see that they can ride up the dunes with hardly and sand splashing, which means they are driving with perfect momentum and in a good line.

Note: Do NOT drive like desert safari guys, this is the wrong technique as they only use it to splash sand and make the passengers scream. They counter steer a lot and drive in low gear to keep the revs up. 

All in all, practice makes perfect, and we all still learn on every drive. 

Great support from @Bjoern and @Ishak ! 

 

See you all soon in the sand again  

[Aadi]

Great drive everyone! See you next time.