Thread: Defender V's Hilux

Originally Posted by juddy

This one........

Well done (though I am sure Diana will be along soon to point out that she meant to say "competing" vehicles, not support vehicles.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Well done (though I am sure Diana will be along soon to point out that she meant to say "competing" vehicles, not support vehicles.

That and/or ones that were in the top outright places.

I have to say that it always facinates me that in the original Paris-Dakar (rallys the ones that started in Paris and finished in Dakar) the team support crews took all their spares in trucks that were also competing and still very competitative on times, a remarkable achievement. Don't know if it is still true of the current "Dakar" in name only rallys.

Check these show room standard Dakars.


















And look at this, Can you guess the Truck.

Re the Bowlers: The suspension whislt "based" on rover stuff was far from it. The front Radius arms were custom made by bowler as were the rear RA's and watts linkage. The axle housings were Disco2, but most were filled with aftermarket stuff. I know MD did some complete housings, laminated, locked etc for some teams. The shocks were the very high quailty and expensive Ohlins and my guess would be that the gearboxs have either Quaife internals or be Quafie boxes...

how show room????I would guess that at the very least shocks be changed out. If any of those RR are french the engines would not be stock. The french raced may RR in the Dakar and not were known for their hopped up engines...

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

That and/or ones that were in the top outright places.

I have to say that it always facinates me that in the original Paris-Dakar (rallys the ones that started in Paris and finished in Dakar) the team support crews took all their spares in trucks that were also competing and still very competitative on times, a remarkable achievement. Don't know if it is still true of the current "Dakar" in name only rallys.

Theres still a truck class, even for the non racing support Trucks. DAF won it for many years until there was a big accident and some people got killed, as far as i am aware The Racing trucks made a come back a few years ago....

Originally Posted by juddy

Theres still a truck class, even for the non racing support Trucks. DAF won it for many years until there was a big accident and some people got killed, as far as i am aware The Racing trucks made a come back a few years ago....

To level the playing field between the privateer entries and the manufacturer supported teams a rule was introduced that the only spares (particularly things like gearboxes and diffs) that could be used on the competition vehicles had to be carried on a competing vehicle. A team could use spares on any of its team vehicles as long as it came out of a competing vehicle. IIRC initially many teams entered the trucks only to get around the rule without any expectation that the trucks would be competative, there were so many trucks being entered that they created a new class just for them.

We have a local TV program, where a local 4x4 fundi and his team go into the African bush and then the entire trip is recorded (typical "reality" TV stuff).

They took the new Amarok up into darkest Africa (obviously sponsored by the manufacturer), and the results were NOT pretty.

I'll try and find if there was anything in English about the trip (was filmed in Afrikaans) and post it.

Suffice to say that VW South Africa didn't have the media coup they expected. Some pretty serious and catastrophic component failures, requiring new engines to be flown half way across the continent.

I think my predictions regarding highly stressed low capacity turbo diesels were not far off the mark. So maybe Land Rover is missing the bus with the 2.2 Puma ?

Once again I fail to understand the arguments against the TDV6 2.7 in the Defender.