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HEART OF BORNEO SAFARI 2007

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Scrutineering and race brief day.. 27 October 2007

Flag off and SS 1 & 2

 

 Toyota BJ 40 & 43 are still king of the Borneo Safari. These never say die vehicles have been seen year after year at all the 17 safaris. All of them are none standard and many with coil spring suspension, supped up motors and trannies. Here we see red..

 

Another popular vehicle is the Toyota BJ 73. This vehicle was specially manufactured by Toyota for off road purpose. It comes stock with a 100 inch wheel base. The FRP (fiber reinforced plastic) top lessen its weight to about 2 tones. Many come stock with lockers and a super low 4 speed tranny. After being around for about 20 years, many of these vehicles take different forms with engine transplant from 13BT to 2JZ mated to a BJ60 5 speed gear box. However, we saw that many still had lifted leaf springs. Kinaway in KK stocks the most 73 parts.

This model had a production span of 10 years, one of the shortest of Toyota 4X4 vehicles. 6 units were seen at scrutineering.

 

This truck is mainly used in timber camps where its 4.2L 6-in-line high torque diesel can pull, push and carry anything and everything. This one is a pack mule for the safari with special suspension mods. It has coil springs, two in front and four in the back. It has twin shocks mounted in the back and has anti sway bars. We saw the vehicle corner and man could it corner... this level of modification and workmanship is only seen in Sabah.

 

 

This is Kudat Kiun's rig fresh from winning the Central Sarawak 4X4 Challenge a month ago. No further work has been done except for putting on new soft plastic sheet 'windows'.

When asked about his chances this year.. Kudat Kuin rather let his driving speak on his behalf. He would be one of the drivers to look out for.

 

 

Land Rover? No there are no real Land Rover in the safari except for the stock Fire Department 110 Defender with lockers. All others like this one here are hybrids. They have LR body and skin but upon closer inspection, one could see 6 nut wheels and locking front hubs but still maintaining the same radius arms and A frame axel holder in the back.

 

 

 

Borneo Safari main committee members from right to left:

Thomas Chai - tag-on manager, Peter Liew - competition manager, Beauford Lim - sticker chief and marshal, Dr. Peter - event medic, James Wong - event director, George Tinker - expedition leader and Sun Tung Lee - chief scout.

 

Team Japan. The Japanese contingent is made up of 8 persons, led by Toshi Urabe. The youngest driver is 25 seated 1st left and a number of them have returned to the event to try to improve their standings. It was observed that they often start well but after 3 days in the hot and humid, our Japanese friends starts to wither. Look out for Yoshimoto, co-driver with Wong Chai.. . they would be a top team.

 


Kudat Kuin draws his starting order while Wong Chai waits his turn. The two would be the drivers to watch as they lock horns to be crow King of Borneo. We'll know by the end of the week.. stay tuned.