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Anand Mahindra shares video of new Thar crossing river without a snorkel

Anand Mahindra often shares interesting videos from his Twitter account. Earlier, he retweeted a video of a Mahindra Bolero going through a flooded road. Now, he has shared a new video. This time it is a Mahindra Thar that can be seen going through a high flowing river.

Anand Mahindra wrote on Twitter “After I RT’d the tweet about a Bolero in Gujarat wading through flood waters, several of you shared this video that’s circulating on @YouTube I think we may well have to create a new vertical called ‘MahindraAmphibious Vehicles’ (MAV’s!)”

In the video, we can see a Mahindra Thar crossing a fast-flowing river. The Thar has no modifications to it to make it more off-road capable. It is running on stock tyres, has no lift kit and does not even have a snorkel but still, the driver is able to cross the river.

Anand Mahindra shares video of new Thar crossing river without a snorkel

The driver enters the river at carrying decent speed. When he had crossed half of the river, the current of the river drags the SUV with it but the driver somehow manages to escape it. We can see Thar struggling for a bit. Almost half the SUV was under the water, the river must have had rocks at the bottom because if it would have been sand the tyres would have lost traction and get stuck. It is quite commendable of the Thar to be able to cross a fast-flowing river that too in a stock form.

Having said that, you should never attempt such things. There are a lot of things that could have gone wrong. The current could have carried the SUV with it, the tyres could have lost traction and the Thar could get stuck and the engine could have got hydrolocked because there was no snorkel installed.

Anand Mahindra shares video of new Thar crossing river without a snorkel

Before crossing water bodies, the least modification that the driver should have opted for is a snorkel. A snorkel would have helped the SUV in breathing more easily. The snorkel takes cold clean air from above the water and it helps in maintaining a consistent airflow for the engine.

Nowadays, vehicles have a lot of electronics built into them. There are special sensors placed that can detect water and shut down the engine to prevent damage. This is called hydrolocking. You would have to rebuild your engine to make sure that there is no water inside the engine compartment. Rebuilding an engine costs a lot because the whole engine needs to come out of the vehicle and then it is disassembled, cleaned and then reassembled. Parts that have taken damage are also replaced. So, the repair cost can be very high.

Anand Mahindra shares video of new Thar crossing river without a snorkel

The Thar that we see in the video is equipped with a petrol engine mated to an automatic transmission. Mahindra is also offering a diesel engine mated to the same automatic transmission. Both the engines are also offered with a manual gearbox. Mahindra offers a 4×4 system with a low range gearbox as standard with the Thar.

Paarth Khatri

Paarth's passion for cars started by collecting newspaper clippings when he was just a toddler. He is obsessed with cars and technology and can talk about them all day. He has an undying love for cars with a manual transmission and is always ready to drive anything with 2 or 4 wheels. Being an audiophile his dream car is Lexus LFA, considering it is the best sounding car ever made. He would happily burn the last gallon of petrol for a lap in the Ariel Atom 500. (Full bio)