The BS4 compliant Force Gurkha has been caught testing at the Khardung La pass in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. The off-roader will soon be available in tier-1 cities.
Force Motors had revealed the new Gurkha back in 2013 but the model was not well received in the market getting a lot of negative feedback. As a result, the company held back its launch and worked further on the capable off-roader for more than a year before launching it in the market late last year. However, Force Motors has not been able to retail the vehicle in big cities because it was not BS4 compliant. The company has been testing the BS4 compliant model for a while now and the vehicle has been caught testing once again.
Not one but two test vehicles were spotted undergoing testing in the challenging conditions of Khardung La pass, which lies in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. The model could not be identified as such, but it was one of the vehicle’s driver who mentioned that it was the BS4 version of the Gurkha. Both the mules were heavily wired and one had its bonnet open for some reason. According the Force Motors, the Gurkha is an “Extreme Off-Road Vehicle” which does indeed live up to the tag’s definition.
The Force Gurkha is powered by a 2596cc, four-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine which produces 80 BHP at 3200 RPM, 230 Nm of torque between 1800 to 2000 RPM and comes mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox. The engine is directly sourced from Mercedes-Benz and does seem to be under-powered on paper, but one does not really feel the same when travelling through some of the most treacherous conditions available. The Gurkha’s strong point is its independently locking front and rear differentials and an advanced transfer case. This helps in taking the off-roader into 2H (2-wheel Drive), 4H (4-wheel high speed, low torque) and 4L (4-wheel high torque, low speed) modes at any point of time.
Spy Pictures Source – Team-BHP.com