Next year will mark the 23rd consecutive year that Hino has entered the Dakar Rally having been the first Japanese manufacturers to enter this rally when it competed in the 1991 event, which went from Paris to Dakar via Tripoli.
Hino Team Sugawara in conjunction with Hino Motors Ltd. in Japan has made its customary entry of two 500 Series trucks for the 2014 Dakar Rally which starts in Rosario, Argentina, on January 5 and ends in Chile on January 18. The team will be backed up by an experienced technical team, including four technicians selected from Hino dealerships in Japan. For the first time there will be a dedicated electronics specialist who will concentrate mainly on engine performance. This indicates the advances being made in technology to extract maximum performance in a long-distance event of this nature72 year old Yoshimasa Sugawara who holds the Guinness record for 30 consecutive entries in the Dakar-Rally will drive Truck No. 1 whilst Truck No. 2 will be driven by his 41 year old son Teruhito, who has been competing in the Dakar Rally since 2005 and has notched up four consecutives successes in the under 10-litre class.
Yoshimasa has finished second overall in the truck category on six occasions and has notched up seven wins in the class tor trucks with engines of less than 10 litres capacity. The No. 1 Hino is fitted with a 9-litre common rail A09C turbo-intercooled engine which will mark the first time the team has used a power unit with a capacity greater than 8-litres. The bigger engine develops 445kW of power and 1 950N.m of torque compared to 360kW of power and 1 425N.m of torque delivered by the 8-litre JO8C engine fitted to the No. 2 racing truck.
