SEVENTH TIME LUCKY FOR TOYOTA?
The Dakar adventure continues in South America as the Toyota Gazoo Racing SA team again takes on the longest and toughest race in the world.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing SA team takes on the 40th edition of the iconic Dakar Rally in South America with three world-class driver/ navigator combinations and a newly developed mid-engine Hilux V8 in an effort to beat the might of the Peugeot and Mini teams.
The rally, which gets underway on 6 January in Lima, Peru, remains the world’s greatest automotive race – bringing together more than 500 competitors from as many as 60 different nationalities – over 15 days, and 10,000 km.
The Japanese manufacturer had been a force to be reckoned with in the Dakar Rally since first fielding a Toyota Hilux in 2012, and the question now is: will it be seventh time lucky for the team?
Looking at Toyota’s star-studded lineup, this year’s race presents the team with probably its best chance to achieve Dakar glory – and its last before reigning champions and archrivals Peugeot withdraw from the arduous odyssey.
South African Toyota stalwart and former Dakar winner Giniel de Villiers will again partner with German navigator Dirk von Zitzewitz. The pair last won the gruelling race in 2009, but have since then attained another four podium finishes for Toyota.
They are joined in the line-up by reigning FIA Cross-Country champion Nasser Al Attiyah from Qatar and French navigator Mathieu Baumel. The pair also raced with Toyota Gazoo Racing SA at Dakar 2017, winning the opening stage and leading the race before retiring in stage three.
Al Attiyah and Baumel won their fourth FIA Cross-Country World Cup this year, their third in a Toyota Hilux, and they are looking forward to taking the all-new race vehicle into battle on Dakar.
THE IMA HILUX
The team was upbeat ahead of the start of the race; with all three drivers declaring themselves extremely happy with the development of the new Independent Mid-Mounted All-Wheel drive (IMA) Toyota Hilux.
The team has logged more than 3,000 km of testing miles in South Africa – equivalent to 60% of the aggressive driving in the 2018 rally. Team principal Glyn Hall said the radical new layout and suspension geometry of the car (together with a lower overall weight and more suspension travel, in keeping with the latest rules from both the FIA and the ASO, organisers of the Dakar Rally) incorporates everything the team has learnt over the past six years.
“You can never be overconfident in a race as tough as the Dakar, but at the same time, we feel we’re onto a winning recipe here. The rule changes balance the performance of the petrol-powered cars and the turbo-diesels better, and I have every reason to believe we’re in with a shout.”
De Villiers, having done the bulk of the development driving, said that the car feels extremely fast and well balanced and that he is looking forward to taking it on the Dakar.
The new Hilux will race with a 38 mm air restrictor and has a 12% increase in suspension travel, and its lower weight is sure to play a significant role in Dakar 2018 – starting in the big dunes of Peru, where the soft sand will sap the Toyota V8 of power.
THE ROUTE
After the start in Lima, Peru, on 6 January the competitors face five stages in Peru, two of them looped, before stage six takes them into Bolivia for two extremely high-altitude stages.
The only rest day is on 12 January in