Off Road in the Amazing Mount Etna Tour Bus
Every day, in every weather a trio of Torsus Praetorian buses take tourists up to 3,000 metres on Mount Etna. Detour’s Nik Berg gets behind the wheel.
Designed to tackle the harshest of terrain the Praetorian is like something out of the imagination of Gerry Anderson. All it needs is a big number on the side and one of the Tracy brothers behind the wheel, but today that’s my job.
Unfortunately, I’m not on the slopes of the Sicilian volcano where Praetorians of the Etna Travel Service take visitors from Piano Provenzana up to the Volcanological Observatory, but am instead on the rugged off-road circuit at Millbrook Proving Ground where the vehicle was originally developed.
It’s a pretty daunting track, with steep climbs and precipitous drops, axle-twisting ditches, log piles and alarming angles. I’ve driven it before in assorted 4x4 cars, but the €250,000 Praetorian is something else.
It’s so high off the ground that you’d need to consider a grappling hook to get in through the driver’s door. Instead, I climb aboard via the main passenger door and its handy step then walk up to the front.
Initially the controls are a bit baffling with a column stalk used for the semi-automatic transmission and assorted buttons on the dash for the parking brake and differential lock. And then there’s the massive steering wheel to get used to as well.
The steering is super light, requires huge inputs and tends to buck about with every bump, while the 290 horsepower MAN diesel engine is really all about the low-end torque and so quickly wants to go up through the gears.
Get accustomed to this and it’s actually remarkably easy to drive, barring its humungous size. But there’s no traffic to worry about, only a series of ridiculous obstacles to overcome.
The Praetorian has plenty of ground clearance and can wade through water up to 68cm deep. Both are thoroughly put to the test on the rain-soaked course, and I’m quite amazed to complete two laps with heart-stopping climbs and descents, potholes that would swallow a car and angles that would surely tip one over with this remarkable vehicle completely untroubled.
Although Praetorians are also used in Africa, South America and the Far East in mining and other industries Etna is the vehicle’s toughest test says founder Vakhtang Dzhukashvii.
“It the most extreme use because all the time they’re fully-loaded with 35 people, driving on an extremely bad road. And they’re doing this driving daily an in the winter there can be up to four metres of snow.”
I feel a Detour to Sicily coming on, don’t you?