The Frozen Tundra of the Alcan 5000 Rally Is Not for the Weak

It’s one thing to set off for a 10-day, 5,000-mile time-distance road rally in temperatures that dip way below freezing. And it’s quite another to do so in a new vehicle, testing it out in ways that you’ve never seen before.

Mercedes and Andy Lilienthal tackled their third Alcan 5000 event in an Ineos Grenadier, a new SUV built by the British chemical conglomerate of the same name. Piloting an unmodified Grenadier, Team Lilienthal beat 16 other competitors to win the Truck/SUV class.

In case you’ve never heard of the Grenadier, it has an interesting origin story; not the least of which is that it was named after a pub in London where the idea was conceived. British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the founder and CEO of Ineos chemical group, was dismayed to hear of the discontinuation of the Land Rover Defender. Reportedly, Ratcliffe requested the plans for the vehicle and when JLR rejected his offer, Ratcliffe commissioned a vehicle that ended up looking very much like the classic Defender.

Developed by Magna Steyr and built in France, the Ineos Grenadier is powered by a BMW-sourced turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six engine good for 282 horsepower and 332 lb-ft of torque. Equipped with a ZF transmission, solid axles and lockable differentials, and 10.4 inches of ground clearance, the Grenadier proved to be more than capable of tackling (and winning) the Alcan 5000, which kicked off in Kirkland, Washington and ended in Anchorage, Alaska.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WXsv0BVK88

Still, it’s a new vehicle that hasn’t competed at this level before, and the Lilienthals didn’t expect to win. In their first Arctic competition, Mercedes and Andy ran the Alcan 5000 in a 1991 right-hand-drive turbo-diesel-powered Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4, which they say was “slow and small” but finished strong. They received the new Grenadier with 87 miles on the odometer, and breaking it in and learning how to navigate all of the controls was the initial challenge.

“The thing that impressed me most and was possibly the most surprising was how compliant the vehicle was, even with solid front and rear axles,” Andy says. “Even on the bad roads in Alaska, the suspension ate up all of the bumps and it was very controlled.”