Boys and
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their toys
When truck distributors Jan and Gerard de Rooy take time out from work, there's only one place they want to be at the wheel of a truck taking part in either the Dakar or Africa rallies...
Words: Will Shiers Father and son Jan and Gerard de Rooy run one of Europe's most successful truck distribution businesses, which is just as well, because they need a small fortune each year to fund their hobby.
Jan de Rooy is best known as a haulage business. Its distinctive orange truck transporters are a familiar sight on the UK motorway network, but to motorsport fans, the de Rooy name is synonymous with something far more exciting than just trundling DAF LFs up and down the M6 — and that something is blasting though the African countryside on the legendary Dakar Rally.
Their passion for rallying started in 1982 when Jan first entered the Dakar Rally, and since then the two of them have taken part a staggering 21 times.
Until a couple of years ago,'Team de Rooy' had been extremely patriotic with its truck choice, running only Dutch-built DAF or Ginaf products, but this changed when they realised their ageing DAF 12.6-litre engines (based on old Leylands) were no longer competitive.
With DAF unable to come up with a suitable replacement, the de Rooys turned to Iveco for its 20-litre V8 Vector marine engine. Iveco turned them down, offering its Cursor 13 instead. "When clad heard the suggestion, he burst into laughter," says Gerard. We need more than 800hp." But with its Holset turbo, the 12.9-litre engine kicks out 820hp at 2200rpm. No one's laughing now.
Rally action
In 2007, the engine was fitted to the team's Ginaf 4x4 trucks in preparation for the 2008 Dakar Rally. However, the rally was cancelled following a terror threat, so father and son had to wait another year before they could put the engines through their paces.
In January 2009, Gerard headed off to Argentina to compete in the 'Dakar' (South America being the new 'terror-free' locale), while his father took part in the Africa Rally. Gerard came in third (out of 82 trucks) in an Iveco-powered Ginaf, while Jan won his race in a Trakker. Next year, both will compete in Cursor-powered Trakkers.
Off road
When Gerard de Rooy invited CM to a Belgian quarry to watch him test his newly completed 2010 Trakker, we secretly hoped that we could take it for a spin — but we were immediately warned off.
"You break it, you pay for it," he said. Considering you probably wouldn't get much change out of £500,000 for one of these, we decided to heed his advice.
The climb into the cab wasn't particularly easy; it involved a balancing act on the wheel nuts. You certainly wouldn't specify one of these for multidrop work. Having said that, trying to fit into the tiny bucket seat and fasten the four-point safety harness was even more of a challenge.A Vaseline dispenser on the dashboard wouldn't have gone amiss...
Having been shoehorned into the seat, Gerard fired it up and the roar of the Cursor engine echoed around the quarry. Rabbits ran for their lives, and digger operatives stopped what they were doing to witness the spectacle.
We knew it was going to be fast, but didn't realise quite how fast.The truck had no problem finding traction on the gravel, and in seconds we hit the limiter — that's 150km/h.
As Gerard demonstrated the effectiveness of the disc brakes, we were thrown forwards, then back again as he hit the gas once more. During a race, the navigator and mechanic wear neck braces, but, rather stupidly, we didn't think we'd need one for a lap of the quarry.
The hills were ridiculously steep and the surfaces loose, but they weren't a problem for the Trakker. It's hard to believe that this is an eight-tonne truck.
Gerard power-slid around the hairpins, and we tried not to notice the sheer drop on the side of the road. A quick glance at Gerard for reassurance revealed that he looked like he was out for a leisurely Sunday drive. Meanwhile, we were wondering where the nearest launderette was.
"Are you enjoying it?" he asked, but replying was impossible. The odd squeak and yelp was all we managed as the truck sprang into the air and came down with a crash. We were blasting through the Belgian countryside with all the subtlety of a nuclear explosion. Even when we hit a puddle — more like a lake — it didn't affect our speed.
Obstacle course
Several large boulders lay in the road ahead, but Gerard seemed not to notice them. We braced ourselves and waited for the carnage as the tyres blew, but nothing happened. There was so much noise and vibration that we weren't sure if we hit them or not. We discovered later that the Michelin tyres are rarely damaged by rocks. African and South American cacti, on the other hand, are lethal — their needles slice through the sidewalls like butter.
Next came an incredibly rough road, with just a few feet between us and a huge drop, but there was no time to panic. Another `yump' or two, more power-slides and we were back where we started.A few seconds later speech returned. And the verdict? "Absolutely brilliant!" MI