Six Tatra trucks participate in this year's Dakar Rally

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Press Release / January 6, 2015

The 2015 Dakar Rally started on January 4 in Buenos Aires and six Tatra trucks will be competing amongst a total of 63 in this legendary race. This marks the 37th year for the race, and the seventh time it has been held in South America.

Driving truck number 506, Martin Kolomý represents the TATRA BUGGYRA RACING team, which is officially supported by TATRA TRUCKS.

Numbers 515, 517 and 539 are driven by Arthur Ardavičus, Tomáš Vrátný and John Szustkowski from the BONVER DAKAR PROJECT team.

Number 536 is assigned to TATRA PHOENIX of the Dutch team and driven by Gert Huzink.

Number 563 belongs to the Slovak crew and is driven by Robert Kasák.

The TATRA BUGGY RACING truck, which is based on the commercial production model T815 4x4 with short cab, is equipped with 12.5-liter engine GYRTECH Rally Power MK14-3EC rated at 900 horsepower and 3,800 N.m of torque. The vehicle uses a modified 16-speed ZF/GYRTECH 2014 air-assisted manual transmission and the TATRA drop-box. Independent half-axles are air suspended with REIGER shock absorbers. The curb weight is 8,500 kg with 50:50 weight distribution on the front and rear axles. During this year's race, several components are being tested on the vehicle that will later be used in regular production. The truck’s top speed is electronically limited to 150 Km/h (93mph).

The specially prepared trucks of the BONVER DAKAR Team are based on the T163 Tatra Jamal model, whose low volume production was terminated in 2014 to streamline production efficiency. However, the team has developed a fondness for their 4x4 bonneted racing trucks, and for DAKAR 2015 equipped them with Renault MKR powerplants rated at 1,050 horsepower and 4,000 N.m of torque. The curb weight of these trucks is also 8,500 kg.

On Sunday, the teams set up for the first stage out of 14 in total. The entire first stage was very fast on a hard surface and it became clear in individual waypoints that seconds will be decisive. The best Tatra truck from the TATRA BUGGYRA RACING team was in the fourth place, after the exciting situation when Martin Kolomý struggled the whole stage with Ales Loprais for third place. However, Loprais finished the first stage third with the same finishing time 1:31:30. The Tatra trucks from the BONVER DAKAR Project team finished in the opening stage on the 13th (Ardavičus), 21st (Vrátný) and 37th positions (Szustkovski). Dutchman Huzink´s Tatra Phoenix occupied the 32nd place and Kasák´s Tatra then occupied the 45the place.

For more current information visit the website www.dakar.com, www.buggyra.com, www.bonverdakarproject.com, or view NOVA Sport, ČT4 or Eurosport.

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