CC readers are likely aware that friend and fellow Japan cohort Tatra87 and I are both expats living here in Tokyo. The difference is he lives near the center of the city while I have digs far out in the burbs. As a result, as you can see from our posts, he captures all sorts of unique, classic, and expensive gems that gather in the Meiji Jingu area of central Tokyo on Sundays, while I stroll along industrial backstreets in the sticks finding old Volvo 240s and Mazda Porters. Well, that changed this past Sunday…so challenge issued Tatra, top this…
This came out of the blue as I turned a corner — located in a parking lot of a local trucking company. I never paid much attention to this area before as it was just filled with normal medium-duty trucks. But was this ever a nice find — it’s one of the Hino 500 Series modified trucks that the company built to compete in the World Off-Road Endurance Racing series.
And it’s a championship winner — as Hino has a series of wins in the Under 10 Litre Class, and routinely pushes the larger Iveco, MAN, M-B, and Kamaz trucks for first overall finisher in the large truck category. Here’re some specs:
- Length: 6.37 meters/21 feet
- Height: 3.15 meters/10.3 feet
- Weight: 7400 kgs/16,300 lbs
- Engine: 8.86 litre A09C-TI (turbo with intercooler) inline six cylinder four-stroke diesel, 650 hp and 2230 nm/1600 ft lbs of torque.
- Transmission: Six speed manual with two-speed transfer case.
Hino’s factory-backed effort started in 1991 and was led by “Iron man” Yoshimasu Sugawara. He retired in 2019 and his son, Teruhito, took over as Team Leader. It’s amassed a laudable record; seven consecutive wins in the Under 10 Litre category from 1996 to 2002, and another six year sweep from 2010 to 2016.
What it was doing in this parking lot I have no idea, and as it was a Sunday, there was no one around to ask. There is a Hino assembly plant and test track a few blocks away but there is plenty of space to park it inside there if needed.
Notwithstanding, it was an impressive sight.
Since 2022, a new 600 Series truck has superseded the 500 model with an uprated engine with 800 hp and 2430 nm/1800 ft lbs of torque.
A short six minute video of Hino’s 2020 rally season is below.
Wow, crazy find on a neighborhood walk! Very impressive trucks, as are all of their ilk. If I’m not mistaken the origins of the species were as support trucks of desert racers (such as the car and motorcycle classes) and then someone had the idea to have the support trucks race either other as well, and, well, now the trucks have their own class as their own racers (without the responsibility of being support trucks anymore).
That truck is indeed the sister truck of the Tokyo ’19 show truck which was quite the sight to behold as I rounded a corner, here’s the pic I took when I was there…
And here’s one of the load/cargo area from the back.
Full-size rally raid trucks (as non-support vehicles) go back to the early days of the Paris-Dakar Rally, the first edition was held in 1979.
Below the 1985, double-engined Paris-Dakar DAF which I caught last year, as driven by (the late) Jan de Rooy in that year’s edition. The shape and design of the current rally raid trucks are already there. The mother of all rally raid trucks was his 1988 DAF TurboTwin X1, 10 tonnes of weight, top speed over 200 km/h. Capable of overtaking the leading Ari Vatanen in his Peugeot, as can be seen on YouTube. The other truck, the X2, crashed horribly. End of story.
Nice find Jim, out in the wild! (though not the Hino’s habitat).
Full marks for that find, Jim-san. I have no retort. Nobody can win against 7.4t of race truck! Unless I can find an equivalent Tatra truck… Game on.
Hi Jim, you sure found a real nugget this time, and very big nugget at that. Finding this turbo charged elephant resting outside is kind a head scratcher. Protected by only by a couple small stanchions and what appears to be an identification placard of sorts. Who knows, maybe it’s parked outside because they receive so many requests to see it that it’s easier that way. Footage of these beasts racing flat out in the desert and catching twenty plus feet of air off sand dunes is incredible. These brutes seem to defy the laws of physics when they jump that far. Driving such a truck on public roads if it’s even legal to would get more looks than any other vehicle I can think of. Such a cool race truck.
Thanks Jim!