A week of concentrated testing in the Namib Desert near Walvis Bay has taken Toyota a big step forward in its preparations for the 2014 Dakar Rally in South America from 5-18 January.
Former Dakar winners Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz, third in 2012 and second in 2013, and team mates, Dakar rookie Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie, who navigated Duncan Vos to 10th in 2012, travelled to the vast, open expanse of desert, 32km south-east of Walvis Bay and within 18km of the Atlantic Ocean, to take advantage of the combination of sand dunes and gravel tracks closely resembling the geography they will experience in the Dakar Rally.
Team principal Glyn Hall explained: "Competing in the SA Cross Country championship gives us the opportunity to test the reliability of the Hilux bakkie; we went to Namibia for the sand dunes and the semi-desert environment that's so similar to the South American coastal areas, specifically in Chile's Atacama Desert, reputed to be the driest in the world."
CHASSIS SET-UP
The team concentrated on setting up the chassis and suspension of the Hilux and also worked on the aerodynamics, brakes, gearing, drive train and new air conditioning - greatly appreciated by De Villiers and Von Zitzewitz, while Poulter took full advantage of the opportunity to drive the Hilux on sand dunes for the first time.
While other engines were evaluated, it was decided to stick with the five-litre V8 that did duty on the 2013 Dakar Rally and that powers the two domestic championship vehicles
Hall said: "The weather conditions were perfect for the entire week, so the team was able to complete more than 2000km of valuable testing in the desert.
"We got through a very full programme of tasks and nearly all were completed with good results, especially the new suspension which was only finished the day before we left. We still have some issues to sort out, which is commonplace when you are developing new ideas.
VALUABLE KNOWLEDGE
"Leeroy, as we expected, fitted into the Dakar team very easily and gained valuable knowledge in both the big sand dunes and rough gravel conditions ahead of the Dakar. He used every hour available to run in the dunes and finalised some of the testing of the new Hilux while Giniel completed some TV work on the final day.
"We now need to finish building the two new Dakar bakkies that are under construction in our workshop and apply what we've learnt this past week in Namibia. There is still a lot of work ahead and the pressure will be on until we deliver the Dakar vehicles to SAA early in December."