TOYOTA’S FRESH PUSH FOR DAKAR
Revamped hilux to bid for glory in south american desert marathon
Toyota has launched a completely revised Hilux in a bid to win its first Dakar next January.
Toyota has been a frontrunner in South America since 2012, with Nasser Al-attiyah leading this year’s event until he ripped a wheel off the car on the third stage. Next year will be the Japanese manufacturer’s biggest ever effort to win the world’s most famous marathon event.
Success for the Hilux would also mean a first petrol-engined victory since the last Mitsubishi Pajero win in 2007.
Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa team principal Glyn Hall said: “We have been given a clear objective [from Japan] to compete to win and we’re going to do our best to fulfil that. The car is completely new for this year: we’ve moved the engine, changed the geometry significantly and all the transmission layout is different to give the car a better balance. There’s no other car out there like ours.”
Hall added that recent regulation changes would help as the FIA sought to equalise the balance of power between diesel and petrol-engined cars and four-wheel-drive and Peugeot’s buggy-style rear-drive cars.
“That is an ongoing process,” said Hall, “and while neither camp will probably ever be entirely happy with the rules, we are confident the latest changes will give us a better shot at Dakar 2018.”
Those regulatory changes mean 12 per cent more suspension travel, lower minimum weight and a larger, 38mm air intake restrictor for the engine.
“We’ve always preferred to stick with the cleaner petrol engine rather than going to diesel,” said Hall. “In the future, the FIA’S looking at turbocharged petrol, which could be interesting, but we’re getting 600Nm of torque out of our engine, so we’re happy with that.”
Former Dakar winners Al-attiyah and Giniel de Villiers spearhead Toyota’s effort to halt Peugeot’s two-year domination of the event.
Al-attiyah said: “The Toyota Hilux has a reputation for reliability and durability. This new version is sure to take all the best characteristics of the previous model and deliver new levels of handling and balance thanks to its innovative design.”
The Hilux is four-wheel-drive, a layout which is expected to work better as the event progresses out of the Peruvian sand dunes and into Bolivia and Argentina. The opposite is true of Peugeot’s 3008 DKR, which will be faster in the sand and more compromised on the South American Wrc-style stages.
The 40th Dakar starts from Lima on January 6, 2018.