• May 10, 2012

Somehow New York City and off-road vehicles are hard to say in the same sentence. Well, if Land Rover can do it (they had an off-road driving course down in the meat market district during the NY Auto Show), the ROHVA DriverCourse can. That’s “Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association.” Don’t wear Armani.

To be clear, we aren’t talking about ATV’s, which are a little like four-wheeled motorcycles, for lack of a better description. ROHV’s are kind of like diminutive Jeeps, designed to have the same breadth of functionality. Unlike ATV’s, these vehicles, which start at around $8,000, are side-by-sides and have roll cages. Industry obvservers say the account for about 200,000 units per year in North America. Here’s what they look like.

The New York ROHVA DriverCourse will be offered to press on Tuesday and Thursday next week. The events kind of kick off the national DriverCourse program. While it is probably a fair guess that there are no ROHV’s in NYC proper that aren’t driven by, say, the parks department, they are fairly common Upstate.

On each of the two days the newly formed ROHVA will hold three sessions (9:30, 12:30 and 4 p.m., three-hours each, though noboby will hold you to it) at Randall’s Island, on a dirt patch nearly under the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge on Bronx Shore Rd. Ty van Hooydonk, who heads communications for Discover Today’s Motorcycling and Discover Today's ATV's, says specialized ROHV coaches will teach the course and ROHVA VP Paul Vitrano will be there to talk about the entire program and the market.

He says this is probably the only time this kind of course will ever be held in Manhattan, which is not surprising. “We're bringing these machines to the biggest media city. Our event is less than seven miles from Midtown. We’re donating a vehicle, actually, to NYC Parks & Rec and some of their folks will get training, too.”

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