The folks from Hummer took advantage of the muddy drainage basin between the main pavilion and the showroom sales tent at the Barrett-Jackson auction site in Scottsdale, Arizona to build an off road demo course. I had a chance to drive the H3 awhile ago and had also checked out the H2 prototype when it was introduced at the L.A. Auto Show a couple years back, so the opportunity to drive a H2, even on a sanitized course, was appealing.

After dealing with the required legal promises to not blame anybody for my own stupidity or lack of ability, I hopped up beside Aaron Pierce, an instructor with the Bondurant School. The "hill" at the start of the course was said to be 60 degrees on each side, the design spec for the Hummer H2. Just beyond the hill was a rocker section with alternating berms about a foot high. A tight left turn then took us through a shallow mud hole and up to the first of two piles of logs before swinging left once more to arrive back at the start.

(Click through to read more about the Hummer test track at Barrett-Jackson.)


With the H2 locked in low range and the 6.2-liter V-8 delivering 415 pound-feet of torque through the 4WD system, the H2 hardly noticed the twenty foot man-made incline. I wanted to get a photo which would dramatically illustrate this death defying climb, so when we were over the top I stopped with the stubby nose pointed down at the tracks leading away in the dirt. Click! Nice try, but less drama than the bugs on the windshield. Hmmm. How about a shot out the passenger window with Aaron leaning back against gravity? Nope, not much drama there either. The heck with it. No way to make a large pile of dirt look threatening, particularly from the point of a H2. We rolled on down and completed the course without further adieu.

What did I learn from an eight minute drive in the dirt? The Hummer H2 appears to have massive crawling power, which would be far more fun to experience at Moab. The suspension seemed to work fine, but I itched to see what would happen to the composure at higher speeds. A nice long mud hole would show off the sophisticated traction control system to better effect, but the available puddle illustrated the concept.

The interior reminds me of an Audi TT or maybe a modern Mini Cooper, with bold gauges set in black with brushed metal accents scattered about. The seats are soft and expansive. I can attest that the doors and B pillar are also padded well enough to prevent injury from being thrown against them on the rocker section. All part of the "off-roading without sacrificing comfort" agenda the Hummers promote. I like it.