HINO’S NEW DAKAR DOMINATORS REVEALED

Monday, 2 December 2013

HINO’S NEW DAKAR DOMINATORS REVEALED

Hino has come out swinging in its bid to maintain Dakar dominance in 2014, launching two brand-new race trucks in Tokyo.

Hino Team Sugawara, championed by father-and-son team Teruhito and Yoshimasa Sugawara, put their newest toys through their paces in front of a huge crowd of motorsport fans on a special skidpan set up on Odaiba, an artificial island in Tokyo Bay.

Teruhito Sugawara has taken a race-prepped Hino 500 Series GT to class victory for the last four years in a row; and he hopes to make it five from five with the new truck.
 
“We’re confident in our truck after its test run in Rally Mongolia,” he said.

“I’d say it’s at least 10 per cent faster than the old truck, which should stand us in good stead for another class win and a top-five finish in the overall rankings.

“We have a lot of experience in South America’s Atacama Desert, and the truck’s new 9.0-litre engine has a lot of potential.”

Dakar master Yoshimasa Sugawara has competed in every Dakar Rally since 1983, when he tackled the run from Paris to Senegal (via Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania) on a 400cc motorbike.

Making the switch to cars in 1985 and to Hino four-wheel drive trucks in 1992, Sugawara senior has dominated the Sahara Desert, even leading Hino to a 1-2-3 finish in the 1997 race.
 
In 2008 organisers were forced to cancel the race and move subsequent Dakar Rallys to South America after the event came under attack from terrorist organisations.

Team Sugawara continued its record-setting run of successes in the new locale, racking up four consecutive class championships in the harsh Atacama Desert.

Supporting Team Sugawara’s Dakar 2014 campaign is a new, race-prepared heavy duty Hino 700 Series ZS, equipped with six axles, four-wheel drive and a 410-horsepower, 12.9-litre engine that produces more than 1600Nm of torque.

The 2014 Dakar rally will run from January 4 to 18, taking in 5000 kilometres of wildly varying terrain across Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.

 

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