Hino continued its amazing run of finishes in the gruelling Dakar Rally when a four-wheel drive 500 Series with a diesel-electric hybrid powertrain completed 10th in the 45th operating of the world’s hardest motor sport occasion, which happened in Saudi Arabia for the third time between 31 December 31 and 15 January.
Hino was once more the one Japanese truck producer to enter this demanding two-week occasion which included way more daunting sand dunes than ever earlier than and took a heavy toll on rivals.
The singleton Hino, entered by the Hino Sugawara Team with its all-Japanese crew of Teruhito Sugawara (driver), Hirokazu Somemiya (co-driver) and Yuji Mochizuki (mechanic), completed 10th out of an unique discipline of 56 vans. It additionally gained the category for vans with engines beneath 10 litres in capability.
This was Teruhito Sugawara’s 23rd Dakar Rally, 16 of them as a driver and 5 as co-driver to his father. He has now gained the beneath 10-litre class 14 occasions. His highest place was taking second place in 2001.
Hino’s intensive Dakar Rally historical past
Hino has taken half in each Dakar Rally since 1991 with a greatest outcome being a clear sweep of the primary three positions general in 1997. The reliability record it has constructed up over 31 Dakar Rallies is that at the least one Hino has completed the rally annually it has taken half.
This 12 months’s entry was a much-improved model of the Hino diesel-electric hybrid truck that raced in the 2022 Dakar Rally the place it completed 22nd on debut. The truck is a bonneted 600 Series of the kind offered in North America. Under the pores and skin it’s related to the four-wheel drive model of the five hundred Series, which has been a robust vendor in South Africa for a few years.
This 12 months’s Dakar Rally began in Sea Camp on the shores of the Red Sea on 31 December and completed on 15 January in Damman on the opposite facet of the Arabian Peninsula. The route of 8 549 km included 4 706 km of timed particular phases, made up of a prologue after which 14 days of racing.
Published by Hino South Africa on MotorPress
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