Nissan Navaras Coming to Dakar 2015....

Coming to the 2015 Dakar will be a handful of new South African built Nissan Navaras possessing a V8 engine.  These trucks are still in a bit of a development/testing phase as they have only run a handful of races in SA in '13 but they are now coming of the jigs on a regular basis and being sold across the world.  We'll see how they compare to the Toyota HiLux run by Giniel de Villiers during the South African offroad season as Thomas Rundle (who finished the Dakar this year in his borrowed HiLux) will be running the V8 Navara all season long.  If you would like to purchase one, learn more about them or perhaps race one in South Africa you can contact Terence Marsh at: terence@redlined.co.za

Some info provided by Terence here:
 

We have built 4 of these to date with the 5^th one currently on the jig which is for a German customer and is scheduled for delivery in February 2014 (update--already delivered in late December/early January). The 6^th chassis which is currently at laser cutting is for an Australian customer and is scheduled for delivery in July 2014.

The base model race unit which is built to FIA and Dakar specification sells for $295,000 US dollars.

·       This unit includes the mounting points for the on-board jack system but excludes the system itself – it uses the same system as the Toyotas.

·       The unit comes with 8 Reiger dampers which are then available in 3 different variances/options.

·       The price listed above excludes the air-conditioning system which is an optional extra.  Fiberglass body is produced in house.

These cars have been purposely built with Dakar in mind and we will have at least two at the 2015 Dakar and 3 or 4 race cars at the 2016 Dakar. Three of our race cars have successfully been tested in our local championship this year and have covered in excess of 8,000 km of rugged and tough terrain with ease. We have worked closely with our Partners at Reiger suspension to get the optimal performance and handling out of the race car and can comfortably say we have achieved this. We have introduced several performance upgrades for the engine package through the year and are now comfortable that are perfromance is up there with the best in the world – the Infiniti FX50 engine has proved to be exceptionally strong and more importantly very reliable!

Please feel free to visit our website at www.regentracing.co.za to get some more insights and photos of the race cars as well as have a ‘virtual view’ of the race car within our video section.

Should any of the guys on your side require any further information or assistance regarding the above they can feel free to contact me on my email address or my mobile number which is listed below.

We are also happy to accommodate international drivers who would like to come out to South Africa and compete in one of our National events – we basically provide a ‘arrive and drive’ package for these customers which includes all the necessary testing together with one of our Championship events in a V6 powered Nissan Navara (ex Dakar car).

Technical specs:

Engine: Nissan VK50VE (from the Infiniti FX50)
Engine Capacity: 5.0L V8
Power Output: 390hp @ 6500rpm and 500nm @ 4400rpm
Gearbox: Sadev 6 speed sequential
Suspension: Double wishbone front and live rear axle
Shock Absorbers: Reiger
Engine Management System: Motec M800
Competition weight: 1975kg
Fuel Capacity: 480L
Wheels: 16 x 7 Evo Corse
Tyres: BF Goodrich

 

Nissan Navara/Frontier Build For Dakar 2015

Yup...2015...

No, we're not in '14 yet but builds for Dakar '15 are already underway.  One of these happens to be a Nissan being built in South Africa for Johan van Staden.  This Dakar spec vehicle it is being built by Stuart Thompson Graeme Thornton and Achim Bergman, also of South Africa who built the recent BMW X3 which took the last win of the South Africa Off Road Championship in '13.

I'll let those who are more technically inclined and knowledgeable than I to pick apart just what the particular parts of this vehicle are in terms of shock placement, suspension geometry, etc. What I can tell you is that the little grey box in the rear of the cab is an air conditioning unit sourced from Glyn Hall at Hallspeed of S.A. (the former Nissan Motorsports manager and now overseer of the Toyota team heading to Dakar), the engine in the Frontier/Navara is a V8 (VK56?) and that the fuel cell is 480 liters--almost 127 gallons!!   Are those shocks Reigers??  I believe I spy a sequential gear shifter--a Sadev??  Are the rear links beefy enough?

I am unsure of what the rear diff is though the previous Navaras built for Dakar and RallyRaid events have replaced the standard diff with that from a Nissan Patrol and they may have done the same here.  The have also gone from a rear leaf spring on the stock Navara/Frontier with a coilover setup (4 link?) and widened the front track (though not by a ton and those arms look a little wimpy for my tastes) and they have sourced some fiberglass parts that I haven't seen available anywhere as well.

Please chime in with what you see here in terms of the design and parts used.  I'm interested in what people with more knowledge of these builds than I think about it.  I've reached out to try and get more details of the build and will try to update this if I get more info.

Nissan Grabs a Podium Spot!

Finally!

It took till the last event of the South African offroad racing season (last weekend) to happen but Nissan finally grabbed a rung on the Donaldson Cross Country Championship ladder.  Even better is that it was a Nissan wearing the livery of the event's primary sponsor Atlas Copco (a Swedish industrial equipment company).

Gary Bertholdt and Siegfried Rousseau took their Nissan Navara to a third place finish in a time of five hours and twenty minutes--some 3 minutes adrift of the winner Willem Vos and his BMW X3.  In reaching out to Gary and asking him how the Navara performed this was his response "The Navara was fantastic. It is an amazing vehicle. It's very competitive with the works Fords and Toyotas and that was why we were able to get fourth in the championship ahead of one of the works Fords".  And this is in fact true.  The team of Bertholdt and Rousseau finished fourth on the year in the South African--Donaldson Cross Country Championship.  Not bad given that most of these top teams are headed to Dakar in about a month.

There were six Nissan's entered in the event and six of them finished with three in the top ten out of 30 entries.


South Africa Off-Road Racing...