Here's a few words from Darren:
"Myself & navigator Wayne Smith will be heading over to compete in this years Australian Safari
Over the past 2 years we have built what we hope will be a strong production class vehicle to withstand the 3600ks of torture its going to put through.
The car is a 4.8 GU patrol. It started life as a nice clean flood damaged car and was quickly stripped to a bare chassis. the chassis has been stregthened & painted white so cracks are easier to find.
The diffs have been laminated by Andrew @ on track and fully rebuilt with 4.6 diff gears front and Steering arms supplied by Hobzees 4H and the rear diff by Induro .
Suspension is custom King springs and King bolt in off road racing shockers & bumpstops. these were set up by Rohan Canavan.
Engine was supplied by Patralapart and rebuilt by On track.
Engine Management was taken car of by Robbie at Wolf aswell as dyno tuning and setting up the gearbox oil cooler electrics to keep the gearbox cool. The new genuine nissan gearbox was supplied by Blackburn 4x4 and Induro .
Roll cage was built by ontrack 4x4 and then the body sent to Stud park panels where the sunroof hole was filled and the interior painted white.
The car has then been carefully built by the guys at FTG auto salvage with every nut & bolt checked & double checked. drilled & pinned where possible aswell as all sump/drain plugs tie wired to stop them falling out.
Wheels are supplied by Dynamic wheels , they are their mines spec wheels and tyres are general grabbers also supplied by Dynamic."
Darren and Wayne head off this Sunday up to compete in the 3600km event which is a huge test of both vehicle and driver/navigator as they negotiate extremely rough terrain at insane speeds.
Hobzee and the team wish them all the best of luck. We will hopefully recieve updates throughout the event and keep this blog updated as the event progresses.
Here are a few images of the Patrol in the lead up to the event.
