Blueprint for a Dakar Rally winner
In Johannesburg a Dakar Rally winner is taking shape in the workshops of Toyota Motorsport: it's a week into stage one of the building of the latest version of the off road racing Imperial Toyota Hilux pickup in which Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz will aim to win the Dakar Rally in South America in the next three years.The 2009 Dakar Rally winners finished a fantastic third overall in this year's event in Toyota's first attempt with the Hilux pickup.
The first of some 200 individual chrome-moly tubes that will make up the chassis and integrated roll cage have been measured, cut and welded by the specialist fabrication team of Toyota Motorsport. It's a crucial 1 000 man hours of work during which the team will also complete all the components that are fabricated and machined in-house before the rest of the new racing pickup is assembled.
The man responsible for the blueprint of what will be the best racing Hilux ever built is chief designer Michael Jardim.
?This will be the eighth double cab racing Hilux that we've built since the first one was produced for the 2011 national off road championship season,? said Jardim. ?We've learnt a lot since then, both in our national championship events and also in the 2012 Dakar Rally.
The latest version incorporates all this knowledge and will hopefully be the vehicle that enables us to achieve Toyota's goal of a first Dakar victory within the next three years. It will certainly be the best racing pickup we've ever built.?
It is this vehicle that forms the basis of the evo Hilux currently under construction.
?We've taken the design of the vehicle to another level. Everything from the windscreen back has been tweaked. Each change, however small, has a knock on effect and affects everything else.
We've added about 15 per cent more tubes than we had in the original chassis. We've managed to do this with minimal weight gain by shortening some of the heavier tubes, rerouting some tubes and changing the location of others.?
Before construction of the new chassis began the CAD drawing of the safety cell that forms an integral part of the tubular structure had to be approved by the FIA and also pass a rollover protection test at MIRA (the British motor industry research association) in the UK.
The floor panels are welded on while the body panels are bolted on so that they can be easily removed for repair or replacement.
The standard production steel body panels that have done duty so far will be replaced for 2013 by new ones made from lightweight composite materials.
- Words quickpic.co.za
The first of some 200 individual chrome-moly tubes that will make up the chassis and integrated roll cage have been measured, cut and welded by the specialist fabrication team of Toyota Motorsport. It's a crucial 1 000 man hours of work during which the team will also complete all the components that are fabricated and machined in-house before the rest of the new racing pickup is assembled.
The man responsible for the blueprint of what will be the best racing Hilux ever built is chief designer Michael Jardim.
?This will be the eighth double cab racing Hilux that we've built since the first one was produced for the 2011 national off road championship season,? said Jardim. ?We've learnt a lot since then, both in our national championship events and also in the 2012 Dakar Rally.
The latest version incorporates all this knowledge and will hopefully be the vehicle that enables us to achieve Toyota's goal of a first Dakar victory within the next three years. It will certainly be the best racing pickup we've ever built.?
It is this vehicle that forms the basis of the evo Hilux currently under construction.
?We've taken the design of the vehicle to another level. Everything from the windscreen back has been tweaked. Each change, however small, has a knock on effect and affects everything else.
We've added about 15 per cent more tubes than we had in the original chassis. We've managed to do this with minimal weight gain by shortening some of the heavier tubes, rerouting some tubes and changing the location of others.?
Before construction of the new chassis began the CAD drawing of the safety cell that forms an integral part of the tubular structure had to be approved by the FIA and also pass a rollover protection test at MIRA (the British motor industry research association) in the UK.
The floor panels are welded on while the body panels are bolted on so that they can be easily removed for repair or replacement.
The standard production steel body panels that have done duty so far will be replaced for 2013 by new ones made from lightweight composite materials.
- Words quickpic.co.za
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