[jalsa777]

First truck maker in the Desert Storm, awesome!


Photo Credit: constructionweekonline.in

Asia MotorWorks (AMW) is the first truck maker in India to participate in the annual Desert Storm rally. This over 3,000 kms long event is considered to be the toughest and most grueling long distance rally raid on the subcontinent. AMW will be entering four specially modified trucks in the 'Ndure' category.
The rally was flagged off from New Delhi on February 20, 2012, and ends on the 25th in Ahmedabad.
The Ndure category is a controlled speed endurance TSD (Time Speed Distance) test for production vehicles.

More details about the Desert Storm can be found here
Travelogue about the route to be followed by the Desert Storm 2012 Participants

[jalsa777]

Some more pictures:

Source: Asia Motor Works' Facebook Page

[harishnayak]

Great new category in DS. wondering which vehicle are they competing with? or is it amongst themselves?

[jalsa777]

Originally Posted by harishnayak

gr8 new category in DS. wondering which vehicle are they competing with? or is it amongst themselves?

For now, its just the 4 AMW trucks in the category. Hopefully, other companies will enter next year

[Zed]

Im keeping my fingers crossed that the category attracts the rest of the CV players in India next time around. This could well be the beginning of the truck racing scene in India. Kudos to AMW for participating this year. What worries me a bit is the lack of a roll cage (or am I not seeing it?) - I assume this may not be mandatory for the competition class the trucks are in but unlike most competing cars that can survive rolls minus a roll cage - wonder what level of protection a standard truck cab will provide. Plus there's no mention of who the drivers are - i.e company staff or semi-pro's ??

Here's a clip for those of you that are interested in truck rallying featuring one of the most dominant teams in recent years. The soundtrack reeks of Malmsteen.

Team Kamaz Master - Vladimir Chagin - YouTube

[jalsa777]

Originally Posted by Zed

Im keeping my fingers crossed that the category attracts the rest of the CV players in India next time around. This could well be the beginning of the truck racing scene in India. Kudos to AMW for participating this year. What worries me a bit is the lack of a roll cage (or am I not seeing it?) - I assume this may not be mandatory for the competition class the trucks are in but unlike most competing cars that can survive rolls minus a roll cage - wonder what level of protection a standard truck cab will provide.

The category in which the trucks have entered has the Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) format. Hence, the speeds are controlled and so I don't think there is a need for a roll-cage as per the regulations.
Experts please correct me if I am wrong.

[Zed]

@ J-777
As mentioned in my post the category of competition might not warrant a roll cage but my question was more of a 'what if ?'. A misjudged approach \ descent in an undulating landscape, even at low speeds, can result in a truck landing wheel side up.

One of the pics suggests most of the ingredients that constitute a flag-off were in place - Cheerleaders - check, chequered flag & Chief guest - check, Rally lights and decals on truck - check, arrangements at the podium - check, seat-belts... oh ooh!

[Zed]

Originally Posted by jalsa777

Asia MotorWorks (AMW) is the first truck maker in India to participate in the annual Desert Storm rally. This over 3,000 kms long event is considered to be the toughest and most grueling long distance rally raid on the subcontinent. AMW will be entering four specially modified trucks in the 'Ndure' category.

Any updates on how the trucks have help up so far ?

[theslayer]

Team AMW wins top 3 awards in Truck category at Rally Desert Storm

https://twitter.com/#!/AsiaMotorWork...49427531468805

@jalsa777: Any further updates, if you have any please?

[Zed]

'Win' ?? I guess that was a foregone conclusion since they were the only participants in the truck category so that's a bit of an overstatement! But Id certainly like to know how the trucks held up, what sort of terrain \ speeds they negotiated and who the drivers were.

Would be good to have the other CV biggies going head to head in proper rally trucks in the next edition of the event. Who knows perhaps we will have an Indian entry at the Dakar someday...

[Ashley2]

Source:AMW FB

[1100D]

God knows what it would feel like to be driving that trailing Gypsy!

[SirAlec]

Originally Posted by Zed

Im keeping my fingers crossed that the category attracts the rest of the CV players in India next time around. This could well be the beginning of the truck racing scene in India. Kudos to AMW for participating this year. What worries me a bit is the lack of a roll cage (or am I not seeing it?) - I assume this may not be mandatory for the competition class the trucks are in but unlike most competing cars that can survive rolls minus a roll cage - wonder what level of protection a standard truck cab will provide. Plus there's no mention of who the drivers are - i.e company staff or semi-pro's ??

Here's a clip for those of you that are interested in truck rallying featuring one of the most dominant teams in recent years. The soundtrack reeks of Malmsteen.

Would really like to see TATA 713 4x4 perform.

BTW that vladimir Chagin, known as Czar of Dakar. He has dominated Dakar rally than any other truck driver, 7 times and 63 stage wins.

[Zed]

Originally Posted by SirAlec

Would really like to see TATA 713 4x4 perform.

BTW that vladimir Chagin, known as Czar of Dakar. He has dominated Dakar rally than any other truck driver, 7 times and 63 stage wins.

Chagin and Firdaus Kabirov have absolutely dominated the truck category in their Kamaz master trucks for the several editions of the Dakar.

This years winner, the relatively young privateer Dutchman Gerard de Rooy (son of a former Dakar winner) has been trying desperately to finish ahead of team Kamaz ( If im not mistaken he was running DAFs in the past) and he finally accomplished his mission in an Iveco truck this year. Would he have won if Kabirov and Chagin were still behind the wheels at Kamaz ? One can only speculate.