Automotive Engineering - August 2024 - 16

ROAD
READY
Tackling the Elements With the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster and Wagon
Spinning up a new car company in the
2020s typically means there's a new
electric crossover being unveiled that
may (or may not) come to market
sometime in the next four years. British
petrochemical company Ineos went in
another direction.
The company's petrol and dieselpowered
Grenadier lineup resembles
the Defenders of the '70s and '80s. An
homage to a time before fuel injection,
touchscreens and backup cameras, the
Grenadier lineup has all of those features
but still looks like something from
the time before CDs.
Ineos knew that trying to build many
of the elements required to create a
modern vehicle would be capital- and
time-intensive. So, the company went
shopping. Under the hood lies the
award-winning B58 BMW 3.0-L turbo
inline-six engine, paired with the same
ZF 8-speed transmission that BMW
uses in its vehicles.
The engine itself has been tuned specifically
for the Grenadiers outputting
281 horsepower and 331 pound-feet
(449 Nm) versus the B58's default 382
hp and 369 lb-ft (500 Nm). This is to
match the off-road focus of the vehicle,
The Ineos Quartermaster was built for the off-road life, and suffers slightly on asphalt.
which uses an actual mechanical shifter
next to the BMW-sourced automatic
transmission lever to shift the vehicle to
lower gearing.
This is where those who have driven
off-roaders from the '70s, '80s, and early
'90s will enter the nostalgia zone.
Ineos wanted to reduce the number of
ECMs in the vehicle to reduce cost. The
company also wanted to recreate the
off-roading vibes of long ago - and has
succeeded. As I shifted (more like
crammed with a satisfying thud) the
vehicle into low ahead of some rock
crawling during a recent test drive,
memories of doing the same thing in
my youth flooded back, and I immediately
understood why someone would
purchase a Grenadier.
On a triple-digit day on a dusty trail
in Joshua Tree, I drove both the
Quartermaster pickup and Grenadier
Station Wagon. While from a new company,
both felt extremely capable of
tackling the rocks, ruts,
and sand of the desert
course. With a locking
center differential and
optional front and rear
locking differentials, the
vehicles were never overwhelmed
by the terrain.
Even during extreme articulation,
where I sat
shotgun, the off-roader
never strained. I complained
about the lack of
drama to the driver who
then descended " quicker
than normal " to appease
my need for excitement.
One of the more interRear
view of the new Ineos Quartermaster Station Wagon.
16 August 2024
esting decisions Ineos
made was to use a recirculating
ball instead of
the more common rackand-pinion
steering. The
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
BOTH IMAGES: INEOS
Automotive Engineering - August 2024

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