Torsus Praetorian TG3 2024 review | First Drive

The Torsus Praetorian is a bus. But it’s so much more than that. It’s a bus able, without really breaking a sweat, to climb a literal volcano. I have never driven a bus of any kind before, so for the first one to be possibly the coolest bus we at GRR have ever seen, well, that’s quite a way to begin.

Manufactured by Czech company Torsus, the Praetorian is named after the Praetorian Guard, the Roman Army’s elite unit. Sort of the SAS of its day, where only the best, most rugged would suffice. For the kinds of landscapes Torsus’ Praetorian will attack, you could say roughly the same.

Jumping into the driver’s seat, not ready to let on 35 passengers, but instead to tackle one of the UK’s premier off-road testing tracks is not where most people begin their journey from home to the #8 to Tottenham Court Road, but I guess we all have to start somewhere. You’re a bus driver now, Ben.

God the Torsus Praetorian is cool. Who, other than Boris Johnson when shown his new Routemaster, has ever said that about a bus? But the Praetorian is cool. It just is. Not only is this MAN-chassied machine blessed with some proper styling points, but as a lifted bus on double air suspension, with massive chunky off-roading tyres, it just looks epic.

Onto those design touches before I just turn into a giddy school child (too late?). At the front, the Praetorian has been given slim, slightly aggressive headlights, set into a massive plastic, protective, cladding in two parts that sits above and below the grille. This plastic protection and its heavy duty paint continues below, with a pair of diagonally set fog lights built in, and down the sides and at the rear. You can get the Praetorian TG3 in numerous colours, and thankfully we’re driving ours in a magnificent shade of vivid yellow. 

The rear feels a little bit more Stagecoach-ey. It’s a simple bus with some MAN standard rear lights and more of that protective paint. But the key to it looking epic from every angle is that raised suspension and chunky tyres. It really does look like a machine that you could take anywhere. A little intimidating when you are invited to get behind the wheel, especially as you need to climb in through the passenger door and scramble up front. But more on that later.

A 6.9-litre, six-cylinder, diesel engine doesn’t sound that big for a machine that we’re told can easily weigh 13 tonnes when fully laden. But from that engine 1,150Nm (848lb ft) is drawn and can be found in what Torsus rather amusingly calls a “broad” range of 1,200-1,750Nm. That torque is sent to all four wheels through a 12-speed (yes, twelve) semi-automatic gearbox. It also has 290PS (213kW), but given that this bus is going to spend its life just digging deep into its wells of torque to get over obstacles, that seems unimportant. 

Initially, the Praetorian starts its life with a chassis made by MAN, but that is reinforced with a custom skeleton for extra protection against the elements. Underneath, the Praetorian has gained air suspension on the rear axle as well as another air suspension system at the front between the chassis and the Torsus’ superstructure. The mountings that the chassis sits on inside that superstructure have also been upgraded, all for extra comfort for those inside. 

Jump behind the wheel, and the first thing that strikes you, other than the fact that this is the first suspended driving seat I have ever used, is just how normal it feels. The only real oddity is that the steering column is so large that your legs go either side of it – no left foot braking here. 

Gears are selected on the steering column and chassis controls – such as locking diffs – are on a rotary dial on the centre console. Strap in, put the Praetorian into manual mode and you set off with that familiar diesel bus roar. Almost immediately you need to change gear. Any HGV drivers reading this will be unsurprised, but to the average car driver, the fact that I’m in fifth before we’re at 20mph is astonishing. You really need to try and keep the Torsus in its powerband. This gearbox is made by ZF, but it is an automated manual. So, find yourself needing to change gear at the wrong time and you can also find yourself stranded, or worse, plunging toward an obstacle in neutral.

The steering is the second thing to get used to. It’s multiple turns of the massive wheel to get from lock to lock, and is weighted on the heavy side. Torsus hasn’t tried to hide the weight of this massive 8.7m long machine. You will get feedback from all the things you cross, and with Millbrook’s off-road arena in quite a state after some of Bedford’s worst rains in history, we’re quite glad of the knowledge. 

Now some numbers. The Praetorian can manage to climb a slope up to 65 degrees, and stays on all four wheels with a side angle of up to 33.5. Fording depth is 680mm and with a ground clearance of 400mm and approach and departure angles of 28 and 22 degrees respectively, there’s very little that will be too big for it. 

And so it proves. The Praetorian climbs, assaults and drops through Millbrook’s worst challenges without breaking a sweat. The only sign that it’s doing any work is that characteristic engine roar. Sitting high above the action, it almost feels serene from the driver’s seat, if it weren’t for the work that goes into driving. Manual mode is pretty much the only option, to make sure we get that automated manual box into the right gear before it’s needed, and the wrench of the wheel requires action at almost all points.

But, once you get used to it, the Praetorian is remarkably easy to trot around this soaking landscape. The all-wheel-drive system finds grip where there seems to be none, pulling this massive bus over some of the biggest axle articulations I’ve ever seen. The suspension, with all its multiple elements, manages to keep all but the worse crash and shudder out of the cabin, and our imaginary passengers – up to 33 of them – are enjoying quite the ride through the landscape. 

The downside is that gearbox, which can be a little scary at times. The extreme time taken to select and engage the next gear after you request it can lead to a moment of just coasting, which when you’re just at the rise of a steep drop is a little alarming. Learning to drive around that is essential. 

Well, it’s a bus. It has bus seats, bus windows and bus overhead lockers. Those seats can be had in a variety of colours, from classic black to a light cream that Torsus has boldly called beige. Anyone getting that and then using the Praetorian properly really has their brave pants on.

Up front is perhaps my only other real criticism of the Praetorian, which may well be a criticism really of the MAN TGM upon which it is based. For those over six foot the driving position feels quite awkward, I’m not sure I’d want to be crushed up in the seat for too long. The throttle pedal is also hidden in a recess, so if you don’t move your foot correctly when coming off the brake you will find yourself scrabbling to find that little lever. 

It seems a bit weird to talk about possibly the toughest bus in the world and then spend a section talking about things like daytime running light LEDs, heated front windows, panoramic windows, air conditioning and media, but this has all of those things.

In fact, the air-con on this, the third generation of Praetorian, has been improved, with a complete overhaul moving the ducts to provide better air distribution and intake and the heating system not being directly heated by waste heat from the engine.

There are some features that don’t just sound like someone has accidentally copied and pasted the spec sheet to a Golf over. Like heated side windows, a central, powered passenger door, overhead storage boxes and a ladder on the roof. But overall, speccing your Praetorian feels remarkably normal. 

What on earth do you write here? I review cars for a living, and here I’ve been presented with a bus that can do things no car I’ve yet driven will manage. Normally when you come to this particular off-road area at Millbrook you get told there are areas where you can’t go. Here we just seem to drive at everything on offer – well, everywhere a 4m tall bus fits. 

These Praetorians, at least the previous generations, have already been out proving themselves with people who know far more about their needs than I. Turn up to Mount Etna in Sicily for example and you’ll do the last few hundred metres, up where they don’t let cars go, in a Praetorian.

With its chunky Michelin tyres and all-wheel-drive it’s the perfect machine for digging through volcanic rock and ash, and now with some extra comfort we imagine it’ll be even nicer for those tourists who just want to go and see a real volcano without all that effort of walking.

At a base price of £192,112 and available as either the bare shell, full transporter or even in extra-rugged “Minesite” spec, it’s bonkers that such a machine will cost you less than an Aston Martin DB12 that has 350Nm less torque and will go to about a scintilla of the places that the big Torsus will dispatch with ease. A fleet of these at Goodwood soon please!