Press Releases

Iveco and FPT Industrial will be present at the 2012 edition of the world's most important rally, the Dakar. Following their vocation for adventure, Iveco and FPT Industrial will be present at the appointment to supply vehicles, spare parts and engines to the Dutch team De Rooy.

The “Petronas De Rooy Iveco” team in fact made their début during the Morocco rally last October. The Iveco vehicles, driven by Miki Biasion and Gerard De Rooy, achieved excellent results also during training, coming in at first and second place in the special truck category and fifth and sixth overall.

An encouraging start in preparation of the much greater challenge which awaits the team at the Dakar, which every year attracts millions of fans and the media from all over the world.

The vehicles and pilots

The Dutch team will be present at Dakar 2012 with four Iveco Trakker 4x4, equipped with an FPT Industrial C13 engine generating more than 900 horse power, specially equipped for rallying, and with a Strator prototype made in the Netherlands, with an Iveco chassis and driveline and a cab based on the Powerstar, produced and sold by Iveco in Australia.

The three rally trucks will be driven by Miki Biasion, Gerard de Rooy and Hans Stacey (winner of Dakar 2007). Four more Trakkers, tasked with providing vehicle support and assistance during the competition, will complete the line-up of the Petronas De Rooy Iveco team at the forthcoming Dakar event.

The Trakker, considered "best in class" for its everyday use but also for far tougher challenges, is designed to work in all climatic conditions and on all types of terrain, from dirt roads to extreme off-road conditions, with the maximum comfort, safety and productivity.

The forthcoming race will provide Iveco with an invaluable opportunity to verify the behaviour of its product in action: every single vehicle will be put through its paces in extreme situations, making this the perfect chance to carry out interesting, important assessments on reliability and performance, as happened during Overland 2010, in which a Trakker 6x6 and a Daily 4x4 completed one of the toughest expeditions of recent times, taking the place of the classic American cabs used in previous editions.

FPT Industrial confirms its vocation for sport competitions also in the rally sector, after many great achievements in the field of nautical competitions, with the supply of its C13 engines.

In fact, the speed record was recently obtained by the Kerakoll hull, powered by two 9-litre C90-650 engines, on the Montecarlo - Venice route: the result was achieved consuming half the quantity of fuel compared to the previous record, set in 1994. This demonstrates the exceptional performance of FPT Industrial engines as well as the concern for the environment, reduction of fuel consumption and operating costs, all of which are behind engine production.

Among the pilots, Miki Biasion needs no presentation. Speaking on his behalf are two world rally titles achieved with the Lancia Delta Integrale and the excellent performance in the “Tout Terrain” categories, with another two world titles won with the Iveco Eurocargo 135E23W in 1998 and 1999.

Dakar 2012

The race, running from 1st to 15th January, will cross the three largest countries of South America: Argentina, Chile and Peru.

A coast to coast from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a race in 14 stages, two more than last year, which will join the two oceans, running from Mar del Plata in Argentina to Lima, the capital of Peru.

Argentina will host the start of the race and five stages. The starting ceremony will be held in Mar del Plata, the seventh largest city of Argentina, with more than 600,000 inhabitants. Thereafter, the competitors will cross over the Andes and into Chile and the Atacama desert.

Five stages and a rest day will be held in Chile. At the end of the two-week long competition, after the last four stages in Peru the teams will reach Lima, the Peruvian capital. The finishing line will be in Plaza de Armas, in the colonial centre of Lima, which was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988.

The competitors will have to drive a total of 8,500 kilometres, 4,200 of which are against the clock.
Collaboration with PETRONAS Lubricants
One of Iveco's long-standing partners, also for this event, PETRONAS Lubricants will be supporting its historical partner in this adventure which began with the test competition at the Morocco Rally. PETRONAS Lubricants, acting as Title Sponsor, will supply the lubricants and functional fluids for the rally and service vehicles, to become the first technical partner of the Team De Rooy Iveco.

Sharing the same values and passion for quality and technology, PETRONAS Lubricants and Iveco are the perfect partners for this challenge, in which both companies will have the chance to offer their own contribution to performance and quality with their respective high-technology products.

Iveco and its sporting vocation

The Dakar is part of Iveco's broader communication strategy which, in total harmony with its strong international identity and its constant search for initiatives that are able to express its own vitality and energy, increasingly focuses on the sports world.

This, together with the other sports initiatives, including the partnership with the All Blacks, recent rugby World Champions, the collaboration born in 2009, with the MotoGP, the world's most important motorcycle championships for which Iveco is “Trucks & Commercial Vehicles Supplier” and the role of Official Supplier to Ferrari, confirm Iveco's desire to associate its own name with partners of excellence in the international sports field.