TOKYO, March 28, 2024 - Allison Transmission Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of Allison Transmission, the world's largest manufacturer of fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, announced it has supplied Allison 3000 SeriesTM, a six-speed fully automatic transmission with torque converter, to the Hino Team Sugawara in the 2024 Dakar Rally.
Hino Team Sugawara, a joint Dakar Rally team sponsored by Hino Motors and Japan Racing Management, is led by driver and team principal Teruhito Sugawara and has over 30 years of racing experience. Since 2020, Hino Team Sugawara has been using trucks equipped with Allison 3000 SeriesTM fully automatic transmissions, which have proven their acceleration and durability, providing the team with substantial experience of these types of vehicles. The team successfully finished sixth in the 2024 Dakar Rally and has competed in 33 consecutive races in the T5 Trucks category, where other participants competed with larger vehicles. The Dakar Rally 2024 started from Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia, on January 5, 2024, returning to the city of Yanbu on the country’s Red Sea coast 14 days later on January 19, 2024. All Top 10 trucks were equipped with Allison fully automatic transmissions, as were 80% of the Top 20.
The vehicles participating in the 2024 race have been designed to be completely lightweight so that they can more easily negotiate the sand dunes of the infamous Empty Quarter desert. Engineers have succeeded in reducing their weight by approximately 400 kg compared to the vehicles participating in the 2023 race. In addition, in a nod to Japanese culture, a new vehicle design based on the motif of kabuki murals has been adopted to express a sense of lightness and speed.
"The race conditions are becoming tougher and tougher each year as the technology of the vehicles improves. In past races, many teams entered modified production vehicles, but the course has become so challenging that most of them no longer take part. Leveraging our 30 years of experience in this race, we have deployed measures such as enlarging the oil cooler to improve the heat resistance of the automatic transmission under severe weather conditions,” said Sugawara. “When driving on sandy terrain, torque loss during gear shifts with regular transmissions can cause such abrupt deceleration, the driver feels as they are braking suddenly.”
“In addition to vehicle performance, driver experience is also important – for example not getting stuck in the sand or overturning, and avoiding such mistakes is essential to improve timings. The gradients of the dunes are often about 30 degrees, which is not an easy climb. I feel that vehicles with automatic transmissions make life easier for drivers, as it allows them to hold the steering wheel firmly with both hands,” said Sugawara. “From my past experience with automatic transmissions, I have confidence in the smooth acceleration, performance and durability of Allison units."
The Allison 3000 Series in the HINO 600 Series is equipped with a torque converter that amplifies engine torque up to 1.77 times, providing powerful starting performance. In addition, Continuous Power TechnologyTM transfers engine power to the wheels without any interruption, ensuring reliable operation without torque loss and helping drivers achieve improved times in races where every second counts. Allison fully automatic transmissions have been developed over many years to ensure durability, robustness and excellent driving performance even in harsh environments and are currently used all over the world in a wide range of fields, including defense vehicles, Antarctic observation vehicles and snow vehicles.