The all new Castrol Team Toyota Hilux Double Cab SPs of Duncan Vos/Rob Howie and Anthony Taylor/Chris Birkin showed promise in the Adenco 400, the first round of the 2011 ABSA Off-Road Championship, despite experiencing teething problems. Toyota entered two brand new Hilux Double Cab bakkies in this year’s event and the first time that these two clean-sheet design vehicles ran in anger was in the event prologue on Friday afternoon.
Both Hilux Double Cabs showed impressive speed and handling right from the outset but suffered a power loss due to a mapping problem that affected the fuel injection. The team was able to resolve this issue overnight and both Vos and Taylor started the main part of the event on Saturday with the sweet sounding Toyota V8 engines on full song.
While the engines remained strong, a problem with third party supplied universal joints resulted in extreme prop-shaft vibrations on both of the vehicles. Taylor was forced to withdraw from the event while Vos continued, albeit after loosing a significant amount of time, to log valuable experience in the Castrol Team Toyota Hilux Double Cab.
“The Hilux Double Cab certainly showed encouraging form first time out,” says Glyn Hall, Castrol Team Toyota team principal. “We have made substantial advances in virtually every aspect of the Hilux SP with this new vehicle and while it would have been nice to win first time out, a number of glitches were in reality to be expected.
“When the vehicles had a clean run they performed right on the button in terms of our expectations. The handling and traction are right on the mark as is the engine performance. The most impressive aspect of the new Toyota V8 engine, which we run virtually in showroom – Group N – configuration, was the fuel efficiency in racing conditions. The advanced technology really proved itself in this regard with excellent power and torque together with a significant saving over what we are used to.
“The prop-shaft issue was the major concern. We have adopted a fresh approach to the driveline design and sourced the required universal joints from two different manufacturers to check the reliability of each. Both failed and we think that the lubrication used by the manufacturers during assembly is a possible cause of our problems.
“Problems aside, the Adenco 400 served as a valuable performance benchmark for our new vehicles. The potential going forward for Castrol Team Toyota and our partners the Innovation Group, Imperial Toyota and NGK is excellent.”
Privateer competitors flying the Toyota flag included third placed Jannie Visser and Joks le Roux in the Hilux SP used by Chris Visser to capture the Production Vehicle championship last year and Gary Bertholdt and Andre Vermeulen in the Atlas Copco Hilux SP who came in fifth. Reigning Class D champions Deon Venter and Ian Palmer won Class D in their 4X4 Megaworld Hilux.
The Castrol Team Toyota technicians received and award from the Off-Road Commission in recognition of the huge effort put in to work through prop-shaft problems in the true spirit of off-road racing. The award is a cheque for R5000 for donation to a charity of the team’s choice.
– Credit: Toyota of South Africa.