Hino gears up for Dakar

15 July 2013 - 21:37 By Quickpic
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Hino trucks are being enhanced
Hino trucks are being enhanced
Image: Motor Mania

Hino, the only Japanese truck manufacturer to take on the challenge of the gruelling, annual Dakar Rally, is involved with an accelerated performance enhancement programme for its two four-wheel drive 500-Series trucks, which will take part in the 2014 event in South America.

Team Sugawara will once again be responsible for the Hino entries in the race, which have scored numerous category wins (engines under 10 litres) while building up an unequalled record of 23 consecutive finishes.

The 2014 Dakar Rally will start in Rosario, Argentina, on January 5 and finish in Valparaiso, a Chilean resort town, on January 18. The motorcycles and quads will have a two-day detour through Bolivia while the cars and trucks traverse the Andes Mountains.

Next year marks the culmination of Hino's three-year plan to get into the leading overall rankings and many changes are being made to the trucks to further improve performance.

This will include more powerful engines and refined braking and suspension systems.

Yoshimasa Sugawara and his second son, Teruhito, will again drive the team's trucks.

The father, 72, will enter his 23rd Dakar Rally, while his son, who scored his fifth consecutive win in the under 10l category last year, will drive the team's lead truck.

His father's Hino will be a virtual test bed for performance-enhancing new technologies and components not tried in previous races.

The team will have the opportunity to test all the latest changes when they compete in the Mongolia Rally next month. Next year the team will have a new support truck - the Hino 700 Series ZS model .

Some of the support team technicians will again be selected from Hino dealerships in Japan.

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