Suzuki Jimny Pro | Test Drive - Mountain Escape

Suzuki Jimny Pro | Test Drive – Mountain Escape

6 February 2024 Redazione News, Stories, Tested

Words Alessandro Marrone / Photos Daniél Rikkard

They say most of us have a natural predisposition for danger. We spend years building our life, only to put everything at risk in the frantic search for a thrill that makes us feel alive. After all, in the exact moment in which you risk everything, it is precisely there that you are able to appreciate what makes your existence something irreplaceable. Like pieces that follow one another, we go through the years enriching our baggage of memories and experiences, but only some of them are able to truly change us, to become part of our inner self and at the same time they take a piece of us and keep it forever. The mountain has the ability to awaken something intimate, a sort of atavistic call that throws us into the middle of a gigantic valley dominated by enormous spurs of rock that tickle the sky.

I feel so small, I dare say insignificant, in the presence of a natural background that surprises me every time I come back here, almost bewitched by a silent call that creeps into my mind as soon as the summer season takes over and the road beyond the Colle Valcavera opens again for those few months in which the weather conditions allow. Rocca La Meja is not only an incredible place because of its scenic appearance of bare rocks that overlap one another, but because it manages to make a place come alive, to enjoy its own personality and an unpredictable mood, capable of transforming an apparently sunny day into a storm ready to make the path that leads at the foot of the great mountain even more impervious.

It almost seems like a ritual, an action that I feel I must perform to relive one of the most absurd experiences I have ever had in my life and aware that the trail will continue to not make life easier for those who intend to tackle it on four wheels, I decide to reach Demonte – the village at the foot of the Vallone dell’Arma – on one of the most effective 4×4 ever: the Suzuki Jimny Pro. The small Japanese off-roader, revolutionized in 2019, has undergone a slight transformation which has allowed the brand to maintain its marketing slice. It is now called Jimny Pro and is registered as an N1 truck in order to circumvent the limitations regarding the manufacturer’s CO2 emissions data. To do this you have to give up the two rear seats, dividing the so-called cabin from the load compartment with an iron grill, thus gaining considerable volume for your luggage. Apart from this, the Jimny Pro is exactly the same fabulous and small off-road vehicle that we know, the ideal weapon for tackling paths capable of putting 98% of the 4x4s out there into deep troubles.

The fact of being able to count on small dimensions, minimal overhangs and best in the game attack points are just some of the characteristics that allow the Suzuki to excel away from asphalt ground, a scenario in which instead you could point a noisy cabin and a rather wobbling steering, yet another demonstration that the Jimny (or Jimny Pro as we should call it by now) has a very specific purpose and that is to live on rough terrain. During normal driving, traction is on the rear axle only, but with the appropriate lever it becomes permanent on all four wheels, immediately showing how the two axles are able to grip even on the most demanding sections. Then there are the low range gears which confirm the off-road quality of an object which by nature is not afraid of being treated vigorously: it will be able to get you out of even the most difficult situations.

Thanks to the agility conferred by its small size, we leave the asphalt section that leads us to a few hundred meters from Colle Fauniera, we turn left and after a blink of an eye tarmac is replaced by the dirt path which from here will take us at the feet of Rocca La Meja, with a ring that hides treacherous passages and a breathtaking view. This is where I engage all-wheel drive and slow down the pace, mainly because the test car is equipped with traditional tires that could suffer from sharp stones scattered along the way. We almost always advance in first gear, switching to second only when the road becomes wide enough to allow visibility on possible vehicles approaching from the opposite direction. Actually we only found a few cyclists and a handful of hikers, except for two pick-ups that soon pull over on a larger-than-usual meadow.

The Jimny Pro has the ability to convey innate confidence. You can feel the mechanical effort that occurs beneath when you make a twist or when you face a timid ford that bisects the path for a few meters. Visibility beyond the windshield is amazing, also thanks to the square shapes that distinguish it and as I grip the steering I cast my gaze to the sides, where a bottomless precipice comes to life. The road becomes narrow, in some places it does not hide the severity of the previous winter and of storms that hit days before, showing how the gravel and stone walls around us crumble almost suddenly. After two hours we have traveled just a few kilometers, but it is as if we were on another planet, populated only by marmots and herds of grazing cattle. The stops to enjoy the spectacle that nature reserves for those who venture into this impervious place are frequent and each one gives us a priceless view, always accompanied by that rock crest we constantly keep as our target.

The silence envelops everything and is interrupted only by sudden gusts of wind and the cries of some marmots who, coming out of their den, see this strange metal object roaming around their territory. Aware that we will not complete the entire loop in order to return to the starting point, we try not to linger too long with the various stops, but we are literally overwhelmed by an unprecedented natural masterpiece. The only moments in which I urge Daniél to be more than quick with his photos are when we stop in the middle of the trail without rocks on the sides. If in that moment someone arrive from the opposite direction, it would truly be a panic situation. Thus I find myself cruising at a slow pace along the stretch close to Monte Servagno, stretching my neck beyond the curves, almost as if to go over the bonnet which always accurately communicates the dimensions of the small Suzuki. We don’t meet anyone and with our stomachs already rumbling for half an hour, we decide to take advantage of an open space to stop and have our packed lunch.

The Jimny Pro keeps its petrol engine, an inline 1.5-cc 4-cylinder that delivers 102 horsepower and 130 Nm of torque through a 5-speed manual gearbox. Nothing more is needed, because its traction and agility demonstrated away from asphalt reward an old-school choice that proves to be as effective as you would expect. By the same principle with which you would prefer a Jimny (Pro) to a luxury SUV, the best place for our lunch is not a glamorous restaurant, but a stone on the side of the road and possibly the cargo compartment of the Suzuki itself, with the tailgate wide open overlooking the northern side of the valley. The view is priceless, the air is fine and uncontaminated, the moment is perfect.

A couple of sandwiches and some chocolate later, we are still there enjoying the spectacle created by nature, aware that moments like this are increasingly rare and precious, moments to be jealously kept in our memories precisely because they require the need to strip away all those comfort we can no longer do without for more than a few hours. There is no telephone signal here, time is marked by how the sun moves above our heads, lengthening the shadows as the hours go by. Yet nothing is missing and the essence of the Suzuki Jimny Pro is precisely this, the fact of giving up everything that is not really needed away from typical roads. Then, let’s be clear, the Jimny remains perfect even in the city, thanks to its XS size. If after so many years Suzuki has continued on this way – or should we say path – it is because its customers know what they want and do not intend to give up the solidity and reliability that distinguishes the Jimny. We don’t even have a sat-navigator on the Pro, but only a radio, a handle to hold on to and the desire to get lost on some mountain road, just before returning to the working week and perhaps using the newfound loading compartment for a less aseptic office than usual.

The Jimny Pro is beautiful when it’s dirty with mud and dirt, because every stain tells a story. The dust on the fenders speaks of when we climbed over a couple of bumps a few centimeters from the ravine, the dirty glass is proof that once again a brief shower appeared at the foot of the Rocca. The next day, with these memories still alive and those landscapes well imprinted in our minds, we would have returned there again, or we would have looked for another path – possibly equally isolated – remembering that to feel alive we just need to strip ourselves of everything we usually can’t miss in our routine and rediscover what it means to open your mouth wide in amazement in front of a mountain, rather than a screen. Whatever your destination and your adventure, the Jimny Pro will once again be your faithful travel companion.