Rally Dakar 2022

Toyota Gazoo Racing, the Japanese brand's competition and sports vehicle division, introduced the new Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1 for the 2022 Dakar. 

This is the competition vehicle with which the company will participate in the Dakar 2022, the legendary event, whose next edition will start in Saudi Arabia on January 2nd. Toyota will have a formation consisting of four vehicles.

These four GR DKR Hilux T1 will be headed by Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel, who finished second in the Dakar 2021 and won the race in 2019. The Toyota Gazoo Racing team for the Dakar 2022 is completed with Giniel de Villiers and Dennis Murphy, Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings, and Shameer Variawa and Danie Stassen.

The new Toyota Hilux for the Dakar is still in the development phase, which is why it appears in the photos with an exposed carbon fiber body. The definitive version will be presented at the end of the year, but we can already anticipate some of the most outstanding features of this vehicle adapted to the updated T1 standard.

The Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1 is an evolution of the model originally launched in 2018 and which in 2019 won the race. But although it is based on its predecessor, it introduces several new features. For example, it now has a 3.5 V6 engine with two turbochargers that comes from the new Toyota Land Cruiser 300 instead of the 5.0 V8 aspirated block it used previously.

This new mechanic V6 produces in its street version 415 hp of power and 650 Nm of torque. Now, these figures will be "substantially higher" in the racing version, according to Toyota in the press release. We also know that it will use 37-inch tires instead of 32-inch tires from previous editions. And this change comes accompanied by wider gauges and suspensions with 350 mm of travel instead of the 280 mm they had until now. 

Autonews