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There were eleven vehicles in our convoy which included a
mixture of four door and two door Trackers equipped with an assortment of
features. Automatic transmissions, five
speeds, air conditioning, stereo sound and air bags.
Once it is in 4Wheel drive, the Tracker’s only weakness is
its ground clearance. That weakness
becomes less apparent once the driver adopts what we called, “Tracker
Technique”. Simply put, the Tracker is
small enough to drive around and between most everything that gets in its
way. A trail barely wide enough to fit a
full-size 4x4 onto looks like a two lane highway to a Tracker. Using that technique, we were able to
complete the entire ride over Imogene Pass without dragging the skid plate
once.
One obvious strength of the Tracker is its approach and
departure angle. We demonstrated that
feature by taking it up a near vertical rock at a point where the trail offers
the choice of going over or around. My
friend raised some eyebrows when he headed the front bumper of a red four door
toward the rock. He got lots of smiles
when the bumper cleared and the Tracker began its climb. About halfway up, he stopped the Tracker and
held it there until shutters stopped clicking.
He got more surprised looks when the Tracker resumed climbing the hill
from that position without backing down and taking a run at it.
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Although the 1.6 engine in the Tracker
doesn’t have a lot of power to spare in its higher gears, we demonstrated that
once it’s in low gear, low range, it will climb anything its bumper will clear.The rest of the drive to Telluride was more of the same with
numerous creek crossings, lots of rock climbs, and frequent stops to admire the
scenery and take pictures.
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