Brette

@Srikumar congrats buddy. You deserved this and like many others have said, you are a true leader and always there to help and give advice when needed.  Been a pleasure driving and learning from you along the way and thanks for all the help and support that has brought me and so many other newbies up the ranks.  

Well done Sri. Take a bow. 

Congrats @Remco Snoek

Congrats @Kalahari. Well deserved promotion. 

Congrats @Tbone. Well done.

Congrats @Foxtrot Oscar. Well deserved. 

Congrats @Colin Jordan well deserved. 

@Ale Vallecchisuper happy for you and totally deserved. 

Look forward to driving with you soon.

Congrats @Shadab Khan

43 minutes ago, sertac said:

I have been with this group at pink rock, faya and big red countless time. I never seen any of the 6 cylinder car we have touched to top of the pink rock. Best one is Gaurav`s Pajero even that one is not as good as a Hemi or 6.2 Raptor. It is not logical. We are talking about at least %60 in some cases up to %100 more power. Not everyone is beginner driving those V8 like the samples in Grand Cherokee group you have. 

@sertac I have seen quite a few 3.6 scale pink rock. If you have been around when the pathfinder group is there, you will see all of them zip up and down.  A 3.6 though capable can also be tuned. The V8 in JGC  is also tuned to different specs for different vehicles, the SRT at around 500 bhp compared to the same turbo boost engine churning out over 700 bhp in the hell cat. 

Since we were specifically talking about the JGC, I had to refer to the samples in the JGC group and not to Raptors.  

Would be interesting though to start another thread on just comparisons between a V6 and V8 along with the advantages and disadvantages. 

10 minutes ago, sertac said:

So as i see actually there is no down point of having V8 over a V6 as an engine. V6 is enough i agree, i am also having my WJ as 6 cylinder and my old Cherokee was also 6 cylinder.

What makes me bothered in my off road experience is when i am at Faya or pink rock watching all those V8s are reaching top flying, yes mine also reaching top of the Faya but barely. 

If i was preparing a WK2 for off roading i would go for an early model 2011-2013 it has proper tow points, easily removable bottom plastic parts on bumpers and prices came down to a very logical point. 

Agreed, if that's what you want to do in terms of just zipping up and down a dune, then yes a V8 would help as it has a crazy amount of power. My response was based on the requirement posted by @Shadab Khan.  Then again if you look at some of our seniors in this group, they do the same without the V8.  What each one does with their car, be it V6 or V8, a lot depends on the driver. 

6 minutes ago, Rahimdad said:

@Brette I highly regard your opinion on the new JGC and am sure that you will not require the V8 power all the time as the 3.6 Pentastar seems to be the king right now. But I disagree that you need power to off-road in the rocks as there torque, grip, suspension travel and a proper roll cage is the need, You would not step hard on an accelerator in in the rocks, you would sue the torque of the vehicle to take it one step at a time. However in my experience the sand requires both torque and power, as @sertac nicely put it, on long climbs you need power after a certain level to keep going all the way to the top. I remember with my Hemi I used to make it to the top of Faya from the front face with the accelerator in 70%, now with my V6 I can be standing on the accelerator and my car will just manage 70% of Faya. Lack of power has allowed me to experiment and still rech the top from my cheat routes, however if I have that V8 power I would feel a sense of achievement to get on top from the front face.

That said, I will leave it to the person in question to decide if he wants to show-off every time or find cheat routes like me, in the end we are always on top, to me it does not matter how you reach there.

Agree with what you said @Rahimdad about the torque. I used the wrong word there. Should have said torque in stead of power for the rock climbs. 

2 minutes ago, sertac said:

@Brette i couldn't understand why a V8 will be a nightmare in the desert? Isn't the power ratio the key for a successful off road vehicle?

@sertac  yes power is need but in moderation atleast for the desert. The momentum you build is better than all the power the vehicle has to offer. 

The V8 is  just too much of power that is not required in the desert. It's probably good on rock climbs but on sand, you hardly touch the accelerator and if you don't have momentum going for you it just bogs you down. 

Although Jeep puts these V8 engines on the higher variants, they don't really want you to take those cars off-road, they are more for tracks. With even today's JGC, it's only the 3.6 variants that  come with tow points and are a lot less problematic on sand. I drive with a JGC group sometimes and most of the issues we have there are the V8's whose drivers think that all that power on tap will get them through. But like anything else, if you learn to use it the right way, it's nice to have all that extra power for the 1 off case that you may need it. 

@Shadab Khan I have a 2017 JGC, bought it new and love everything about it. I have always had a soft spot for Jeeps so when looking for a car, I looked for something that I can use on and off road. 

I drive about 3k km a month and enjoy every minute of it. Not sure about the older JGC but the 2017 has everything I could want. 

I am not a fan of of the computers and gizmos, never used cruise control, hill descent or any of the other driver assist features as it takes away the joy of driving. If at anytime I need it, it's there. 

Coming to the off road capabilities, I'd say it is a very capable off roader although there will be some who think otherwise. The problem that I had initially was fright, as at the back of my head I always feared flying over a dune or nose diving in a 200k+ car. Once you get over that fear and start pushing, you realize that it can hold its own out there. 

The electronics in the JGC are another issue when it comes to off road. All the safety features the car has like the ABS, ESC  and brake assist are for the tarmac and  literally hold you back in the desert as there is no way to completely switch it of on the factory set up. If you decide to use the car full time for offroading, you can install a kill switch and in the desert you can then turn off all these features completely. I have just got this done on my JGC and have only done 1 drive after that but it made a huge difference.  

Coming to the engine specs, I would not suggest the V8. In all honesty, you will barely get to use all that power on the tarmac and it will be a nightmare in sand.  The 3.6 is more than enough in my opinion. The air suspensions on the higher versions are also very problematic as they lift and go down at all the wrong time in the desert as that again is controlled by the computers and if you pull the fuse, it sits at its lowest level and is no good in the sand. 

To sum it up, if you are keen on a JGC that you can use on the dunes, go for the laredo or limited. Spend about 5k on good off-road tires, a 2 inch levelling kit and wheel spacers to balance the COG and you should be good to go. 

@Rahimdad Thank you Rahim Bhai. Yeah, miss those chai chats after the drives and the regular feedback and motivation from you. Your calmness and patience helped alot.

Glad when I started off end of 2018 with the JGC, the club was still in its starting stages so I got to have you, @Gaurav @Srikumarand @Emmanuel on every drive to help and suggest how to tame the JGC. The patience and dedication from the seniors shows with the tremendous growth Carnity has seen in the last year, from 7-8 members joining a drive to 50 signing up in less than an hour now.

Thanks again to the entire Carnity team.

Congrats @Jose Martin well deserved promotion.

Had the pleasure of driving behind you last week and you did really well. Keep it up. 

Congrats @Gregory Perkin. Well done and deserved. 

@Mels Wolf congrats, well deserved. 

See you in the sand. 

@E.C. TAN congrats buddy, well deserved.

Congrats @Wrangeld, well deserved. We all knew it was just a matter of time for this to happen.  From your very first drive, you have @Jeepie have shown tremendous enthusiasm and willingness to learn and both of you going from newbies to advanced off roaders in a few months is testament to that commitment. 

Well done.

Congrats @Jeepie, this has been coming for a while now.  Really impressed at the pace at which you and @Wrangeld have grown. 

It is a pleasure having both of you on the drives with your cool and calm approach and willingness to help in any situation. 

Congrats again to both of you. Truly well deserved. 

Congrats @Jeepie. Your commitment has been outstanding and it is showing as you scale new heights every week.  Well done. 

Congrats @Desert Dweller, well done. It showed you were really interested when you would sign up for the drives even without a car and ride shot gun with the seniors and all that has helped. 

Good to see you go from shot gun to top gun. 

Congrats @Nizam Deen. Well deserved. 

29 minutes ago, Mikhail Lukichev said:

Hello! I would like to join the drive if somebody change their plans. Thanks!

@Mikhail Lukichevthe spots fill up pretty quick now. If you are ok with an evening drive, there are a few spots still available at the drive link below.