Land Rover G4 Challenge International Selection

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Global Challenges for All

Phil Vaughan / 01.02.2006

Language differences surfaced in the heat of training and competition as the second day of the event saw competitors honing their off-road skills by driving a Land Rover Discovery 3 and Range Rover Sport through the woods of Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire. Linguistic difficulties arose as instructors explained safe, skilful driving on tracks that Competitions Director Simon Day claims are ‘as hard as anywhere in the world.’

With some of the Taiwanese team initially taking time to compute English instructions, including, ‘stop’ and ‘junction’, and confusing ‘lights’ with ‘low gear’, it proved a slow start to the exercise. After three hours training, the team of Vicky Huang, Joh-Ren Chen and Victor Huang, had grown in confidence, controlling the vehicles on muddy forest trails that resemble those they may encounter during the Challenge, in South East Asia during the rainy season.

National differences also surfaced in the use of hand signals to direct the vehicles’ drivers. Spanish outdoor instructor Eric Vila signalled steering changes to driver Monica Aguilera, a sports video producer, by raising his thumbs and flicking them in the required direction – a change from the normal hand signals.

‘I’m sure that means everything’s OK,’ said instructor Mike Chambers. ‘But it doesn’t matter as long as you both understand. He stressed the important thing is to do nothing if you can’t read another competitor’s signal – you’ll then communicate in another way.

In the coming days the teams will have several more intensive instruction sessions in their vehicles to practice and master the skills they need.See All Event Posts