MKR reveals a surprise – they built a fast Sherpa

6.6.2016

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A great surprise! No other words better fit to describe the plan of the North Bohemia based racing team MKR Technology. In addition to the K520 truck, they are planning to start with one more truck in the prestigious Silkway Rally in Russia, which is considered a ‘dress rehearsal‘ of sorts for the famous Dakar. First tests are finished and the results are more than surprising.

“The first comparison turned out really great. Sherpa is going much faster. On the tough circuit where we were testing it was actually several tens of seconds faster. We didn' t expect something like this at all, though we wanted to build as fast a special as possible for the Dakar. Sherpa seemed to suggest that its parameters could bring the desired results,“ comments the project boss Mario Kress, happy with the development of the new MKR family member. 

In order to build the new Dakar special Mario Kress' development team made use of all the experience gained in the past two years, when they worked on the K520, which successfully ranked in the prestigious top ten in last year's Dakar. There is a whole new challenge now. “We' ve been working hard on the development because it' s definitely our goal to win the Dakar one day. Sherpa gives a new impulse to the preparations, we can examine further technical options without interefering with the existing development. We' ve just finished testing some more elements in a Slovak military area, where the conditions for endurance testing are ideal. We know where the pitfalls are and what to work on,“ mentioned Mario Kress. 

The experienced team of mechanics and constructors from North Bohemia divided the development in several categories in order to apply to a maximum possible degree the experience from the Dakar, but also from the Libya Rally, where they triumphed. They had to deal with a different kind of surprise in each of the races. At the Dakar they even witnessed their whole truck burn down, all their ambition going away. “We've taken the necessary steps to prevent any fire that might blow up from spreading. We' ve identified the cause, so we've learned our lesson as we always do and made the effort to prevent the situation from happening again,“ commented Kress. 

Consequently, the team have the space to focus on the power output and reactions of the engine, concentrating on the whole suspension system, which is always a certain compromise with respect to the overall comfort, but also the key aspect that influences the driving features, steering control and braking. 

That participation of two trucks from the Židovice based MKR Technology research and development centre is not just a test for the sake of fun is confirmed by the fact that the machine will be piloted by the experienced Dutch pilot and winner of the recent Libya Rally Martin van den Brink. His fellow countryman Pascal de Baar, who triumphed in this year' s Dakar' s stage ten and finished sixth in the overall ranking, will be driving the other truck. “The Silkway rally is going to show how our technology is going to perform in relation to reliability and power. It is save to say that we can afford to focus solely on the goals of the rally. For the K520 it will be the configuration and for Sherpa we're going to test the new technologies,“ added Mario Kress, head of the MKR Adventure project. 

Silkway Rally starts on 8 July in Moscow and is bound to end three weeks later (24 July) in Beijing, China.

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