Race Truck Shaken Down at Ibaraki Test Course in Preparation for Rally Mongolia 2014
Jul 25, 2014
From July 9 through 13, the finished HINO500 Series racing truck scheduled to enter Rally Mongolia 2014 underwent a shakedown at Hino Motors' Ibaraki Test Course to evaluate its suspension settings and performance. The two drivers, Yoshimasa and Teruhito Sugawara, came away with a good feeling for the truck, which has been evolving through extensive discourse with Hino developers.
On the first day, Yoshimasa and Teruhito Sugawara took turns at the wheel, driving the truck on banked high-speed tracks and rough terrain. Driving onto the rough track during a one-hour test run, the drivers immediately got the impression that the suspension was a bit stiff, leading the team to decide to modify its settings. A meeting was quickly held with the Hino development team, and the decision was made to use alternative leaf springs with a softer setting. As for the torque rod - a new feature that was added to hold the axle - the team decided to use a bearing-type rod instead of a bush-type rod. The team's mechanics and technicians from Hino's experimentation section worked together to carry out these major replacement tasks, and 4 hours later the truck was ready for its next test drive.
Test results from the alternative suspension were very positive. Teruhito Sugawara remarked: "It usually takes a lot of work to switch from one type of taper leaf suspension to another, and I thought it would be a much longer process of trial and error. So I'm surprised that we were able to bring it to this level very early in the process. I would like to thank the development team, who put in an incredible effort to finish this truck. I'm confident the final results will be positive if we continue to mature the truck in this direction. We'll be conducting solid tests at Rally Mongolia and take it from there." Yoshimasa Sugawara expressed his resolution for the next race to his teammates and associates, saying: "This will be the 25th year that I'll be entering this race. During this milestone year, we have been working harder than ever, and we now have a much better truck. I intend to give it my all as a driver so we're able to come away with solid results." The team continued to make adjustments to the truck's shock absorbers throughout the first day's test run, which ended late in the night.
In order to evaluate performance upgrades introduced since the 2014 race, the Hino Technical Research Center spent the remaining 4 days - excluding a media event on the 12th - carrying out acceleration performance tests, as well as stress and G (shock) measurements on various components to evaluate the suspension's durability. The tests were completed without incident and on schedule.
Having completed its test run, the HINO500 Series truck will be taken to Sakai Port in Tottori Prefecture on July 16, from whence it will be shipped across the Sea of Japan to Vladivostok in Russia and then onto Mongolia, arriving in the country's capital of Ulan Bator in early August.
Topics: Dealer mechanics taking part in Dakar Rally 2015 have been selected!
On July 8, applicants from Hino dealers nationwide took part in the dealer mechanic selection event for HINO TEAM SUGAWARA Dakar Rally 2015 at Hino Motors' headquarters. All the applicants had already passed the first round of screening, and this would be their second round, including practical tests and an interview. The practical skills tests were juried by Yoshimasa and Teruhito Sugawara, as well as other team members. As the mechanics had never worked with their assigned partners before and were tested with tasks in an unfamiliar environment, tensions ran high even for the highly experienced applicants, who had surely been tested under fire numerous times in the past.
Applicants' skill levels have been improving year by year, so the selection process was very difficult and took longer than usual. In the end, four mechanics were chosen based not only on the results of the practical tests and interviews on the screening day, but also based on multifaceted evaluations that took into consideration the team make-up on the actual rally site.
Hironaga Hayashi(Hakodate Hino Motors)
Shunsuke Sugawara(Tokyo Hino Motors)
Hiroya Fukuno(Yokohama Hino Motors)
Takashi Masuda(Hiroshima Hino Motors)
The selected mechanics will join the team late in August after Rally Mongolia. They will be trained on vehicle fabrication and race operations so they can bring themselves up to speed as team mechanics for the Dakar Rally, which is scheduled for January next year. Please keep an eye on these four mechanics, who are all from different Hino dealerships, as we will be introducing each of them in the Dakar News, including their profiles, resolutions, and how they go about their work from day to day.
