Hino Motors completes the Dakar Rally for the 16th straight year

Hino Motors, Ltd. (“Hino”) participated in the 2006 Dakar Rally (officially known as Euromihoes Dakar 2006) starting in Lisbon last month on December 31 and finishing in Dakar on January 15 with two Hino Ranger trucks, completing the race for the sixteenth consecutive year. Hino has participated in the Dakar Rally, considered to be the world’s most grueling, since 1991 with trucks based on stock vehicles. It has proven the reliability and durability of its vehicles by covering the entire distance over changeable severe natural terrain while also demonstrating Hino’s outstanding technological strength by outpacing monster camions of other manufacturers with more than double the displacement. By setting yet another new record in the present event, it has once again shown the world its technological capabilities and product strength. For detailed information about the rally, please access the reports posted on the Hino website (http://www.hino.co.jp). [Top finalists in the Dakar Rally camion division] No. of vehicle entries: 69 No. of vehicles crossing the finish line: 33 Overall ranking Driver (manufacturer) 1 Chagin (Kamaz) 2 Stacey (Man) 3 Kabirov (Kamaz) 4 De Azevedo (Tatra) 5 Yoshimasa Sugawara (Hino) 6 Vismara (Mercedes) 7 Teruhito Sugawara (Hino) 8 Echter (Man) 9 Sadlauer (Man) 10 Reif (Man) (Reference) History of Hino in the Dakar Rally Hino Ranger (1991-2006) Hino first participated in the Dakar Rally as a Japanese truck manufacturer in 1991. It took second place overall in the camion division in 1994 and the same again for the second time the following year. It reinforced the team structure beginning in 1996 with the aim of winning the overall championship and went on in 1997 to achieve a brilliant feat of placing unprecedented first, second and third in the camion division. It continued later to show itself to be a top team in the camion division, winning the overall championship in this division three more times. In addition, it won seven straight victories in the under-10-liter class of the camion division in effect between 1996 and 2002. Though the displacement categories went through a reorganization for the following two years, it was reestablished in 2005 and Hino continues to win the championship.