Extreme Test Drive

So I’m driving a Range Rover on a scenic mountain road outside Asheville, N.C., when my passenger instructs me to take a left, into the woods. I’m understandably nervous: While Land Rovers are historically associated with butch adventure—Hemingway on safari, for instance—they’re rarely used to traverse terrain more treacherous than the Neiman Marcus parking lot. But my passenger is insistent in a way that betrays his military training, so I follow his orders and hang a Louie into a deep puddle. He instructs me to work with gravity and let the car find its “low point.” I ask if there’s a risk of drowning. My passenger reassures me: “The doors and windows are all double sealed.”

At the Land Rover Experience Driving Schools, you don’t learn how to parallel park. Pushing the vehicles to their limits—or rather showing how few limits they have—is the order of the day. The brand hosts three such programs year-round on the grounds of American resorts: the Biltmore Estate in Asheville; the Quail Lodge in Carmel, Calif.; and the Equinox in Manchester Village, Vt. You don’t have to be a guest to take part: For $250 per hour (or $1,200 for a full day) you can hop into a $90,000 luxury truck and learn how to drive through mud, gravel, ruts, and streams, just like those stunts in TV ads the fine print warns you not to attempt.