• After the seemingly endless tide of new truck launches
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with all the attendant smoke bombs and trucks rising out of seas of dry ice, it was refreshing to attend the recent launch of Des new double-engined TurboTwin rally trucks. It is with these monsters that the company will do battle in the transSahara Paris-Dakar rally.
While it does very little for me (I prefer pigeon racing), I'm reliably informed that the rally is rather popular "sur le continent", although the idea of a French Murray Walker is enough to put anyone off.
What was so different about the TurboTwin affair? Appropriately enough, Daf decided to debut its rally trucks at a recreation centre south of Paris which can only be described as the biggest sandpit in France After herding the assembled hacks into a rather draughty tent (desert/tent . . . get it?) the assorted PR and marketing men delivered a surprisingly short and snappy presentation which climaxed with the rolling up of the end wall of the tent to reveal four TurboTwins stampeding over the dunes like giant Tonka toys. . and there's more.
To give the affair a proper taste of the desert there was even a one hump (single turbo) camel wandering through the proceedings. A late arrival from the Camel Trophy perhaps?
While a dromedary is undoubtedly the most suitable form of transport for the ParisDakar slog, a rather cynical but practical hack was heard to mutter as it passed within nasal range "The traction looks good, but I don't fancy the emissions."