Samantha Stevens
National Features
Sand dunes and rocks proved hazards to the Amarok in the Rallye. Picture: Supplied Source:National Features
A HANDFUL of rallies around the globe are recognised as the ultimate test of man and machine.
But there is only one in this elite group that is exclusive to woman and machine; the Rallye Des Gazelles in Morocco, Africa.
The 22nd annual instalment of this all-girl international endurance rally recently brought 301 women and their bikes, quads, crossovers and four-wheel-drives its largest field to date to the African desert for an eight-day marathon enduro.
For the first time, an Australian team journalist and sustainable designer Sally Dominguez and I was there.
The chariot of choice was a Volkswagen Amarok; frighteningly standard, with only a locking diff on the 4×4, some underbody protection, mud tyres, and uprated rear leaf springs to distinguish it from the model you can go out and buy today.
Eleven Amarok TDI 440s – all manuals with low-range 4WD – made up the second biggest factory team.
Of our French, Moroccan and Senegalese teammates, only two were professional drivers; some were absolute novices. The ultimate road test? Too bloody right.
Aside from the sand dunes, volcanic rock, clumps of car-sticking camel grass and stepped riverbanks called Oueds, there is no marked route.
Based on old-style navigation, teams are sent off at each dawn to find a series of checkpoints, using only a compass and 60-year old black-and-white maps.
The Rallye begins with a Prologue afternoon before eight 12-hour days, including two two-day marathon legs where you sleep where you stop at nightfall, proceeding at damn to the next designated bivouc.
On the prologue, the Aussie team found itself on the Prologue; beached on camel grass in the dark.
Lesson one when the clock hits 7pm and the girls are allowed to join up and convoy back to the Bivouac, don’t follow a lifted LandCruiser and assume your standard VeeDub will clear the same sand-infected grassy dunes.
Worse still, the usual 230mm ground clearance of the Amarok is reduced to 192mm with the 4Motion 4WD diffs and underbody protection.
Our impromptu convoy, eager to get back home in the twilight and sadly lacking the Gazelle Spirit of coming to the aid of stricken fellow females, skirted around our vehicle and left us to dig for an hour to get the stranded Amarok off its mooring.
When the ute was finally freed using grippy sand mats and sweat, the rest of the camel grass was taken one dune at a time until the bivouac lights were thankfully spotted in the distance at 10pm.
It was not the ideal start to the rallye. But then again, it was about the only time the Amarok was tripped up.
The ride height in such extreme off-roading and the 2.0-litre four’s lesser engine power proved to be the main weakness on this road test from hell.
Under a beating sun, the soft desert sand has a way of sucking the torque from the wheels as the dunes peak higher and higher, particularly with only 120kW/400Nm at our disposal.
So the only way to attack dunes was to keep the Amarok in high-range 4WD and punt it straight up the face of each dune in second gear, sometimes third, then pop the throttle to reclaim a lower gear at the summit and use engine compression to roll/belly-slide the ute back down again.
Despite the low ride height and fairly standard 21.4-degree ramp angles, only a few big hits were taken to the undertray.
One steep dune stood the car on its nose, teetering for a second while the entire contents of the rear seat came forward onto the windscreen before righting itself again.
But this was on the hardest route around the dunes, the alternative bonus route through the steep peaks with the intimidating nom de plume of X.
Amid big buggies, LandCruisers, Patrols and Jeeps, the Amarok made it in and out unscathed, and towed several stranded cars out in the process (the latter was one of the most rewarding aspects of the rally, particularly after our own Prologue abandonment).
The Amarok was one of the more reliable vehicles in the Rallye. In eight days, the only damage to the entire team was two bent steel rims (one of them ours), a busted front shock, and a slightly bent front-end when one team crested a dune and found another car stuck in the sand on the other side of it.
To say the Amarok’s performance was impressive is an understatement. Our teammates claimed second and third outright after a dedicated buggy, and the Aussie car came 12th in the New Gazelle category and 44th outright.
Admittedly, it is difficult to be objective and not write with bias when you spend two weeks in a car that becomes your only contact with the world and being a bunch of sleep-deprived girls, our steeds naturally developed nicknames and a personality along the way.
But take it from one who has two diesel dual cab utes in her household the Amarok is a bloody tough, very capable competitor, and can handle the toughest conditions in the world.
.
