Back in the day, post lunch excitement came from Mercedes-Benz Truck Racing, an arcade game which introduced my curious self to the world of truck racing, amazed by how so much bulk can be hustled with grace and pace on the track. Now truck racing is something that Indians are quite alien to. Although a reasonably popular sport in the West, India was introduced to it only in 2014, in the form of the Tata T1 Truck Racing Championship.
Little did I know that about a decade or so later, I’d be piloting one such pachyderm-like bulk around a skid pad and a track. At Tata Motor’s private test facility in Pimpri, we drove an example that would compete in this season’s T1 Prima Truck Racing Championship at the Buddh International Circuit.
The racing truck is essentially a moderately tuned Prima 4038 S (4×2 Tractor), and gets its power from a Cummins ISLe 8.9L engine tuned for better acceleration and performance requirements. Power is rated at 370 BHP @ 2100 RPM (+/-50 RPM), while peak torque stands at 1550 Nm at 1300 rpm ( +/-100 rpm).
Going into its second season now, here’s a list of changes differentiate the current season’s truck from the one that raced last year:
- Top speed has now been increased to 130 km/h from 110 km/h.
- 350 Kg weight reduction achieved through lighter springs and fifth wheel coupling
- Ride height has reduced by approximately 55 mm, due to a reduction in the leaf spring stack.
- 55 mm chassis height reduction by spring stack height reduction
- New air-pressurized brake cooling system.
- Caster angle of the front axle has gone up from 2.4 degrees to 6.5 degrees.
- Rear axle ratio has changed from 4.3 to 5.126
- Fixing of rear mudguards
- New rigid seat mounting structure
- Bigger diameter OMP steering wheel
- Improvement in differential lock arrangement
- Tail lamp assembly re-positioning
- Additional toe hook at front
Spreading her wings
Head lamps have been blocked out.
Handsome, Prima front fascia is retained..
..but also get an additional front tow hook.
Re-positioned tail lamp assembly for this season..
..as well as fixed, rear mud-guards.
The experience
Hoist yourself up, and you enter the cavernous cabin. To the uninitiated and diametrically challenged, like me, it felt like being on the bridge of a ship, gazing at the rough seas ahead, anticipating salty spray to hit the ruddy face. But no water came, and no rum was found inside. And what lay ahead instead of an ocean was a sizeable part of skid pad where I’d be piloting the beast.
Cabin is stripped off and bare, like freshly cut cow hide.
Giant roll cage holds things together
Instrument cluster is carried over from stock, and is quite neat.
Red for the vacuum assisted parking brake; and a couple of bottle holders – but sipping on coffee is the last thing on your mind when you’re in this thing.
For racing intents, the Prima’s cabin has been stripped off all kinds of trim. What remain are solely the instrument cluster, the transmission tunnel shroud and the gear selector lever, both carried over from stock. The rest is bare, riveted metal, held in one piece by a massive roll cage that digs its metal claws in every corner it can find inside the cabin. All the wiring has been let loose, and it wanders its way, given a free reign to dangle along.
Fixed OMP racing seat with a 5-point racing harness.
Huge rear view mirror keeps you updated about the whereabouts of fellow truck-racers on the track.
Power windows – what’s that?
OMP wheel feels like it came off a go-kart; is easily detachable too, like in F1 (below).
The throne is a fixed OMP racing seat, and what belts you in is a proper 5-point racing harness. The focused, OMP racing steering wheel is just about bigger than a go-kart’s, and is easily detachable. Ergonomics aren’t that bad actually, considering the original Prima has a European truck-like flair about it, so the steering, pedals and the gear lever fall within easy reach, unlike older Tata trucks, where you need military, as well as gymnastic training to reach for the gear lever. There are no glass side windows as well, all in the name of weight reduction, and what you get is a net instead, which happily keeps flapping in the wind.
EATON 9-speed manual transmission with crawler gear (L) grinds like fury.
Lot’s of space here to do some vehement foot-work.
In here, you feel like a king, but stripped off all his dignity.
That’s all you get in place of glass windows – pretty military style huh?
But wait. I glance at the gear lever, and surely there’s something wrong. The pattern on the knob goes on forever, till it reaches the number 8. What stared back at me was a lever which rowed a 9 speed manual transmission underneath. This is going to be good morning.
Right then, I thumb the rubbery starter and the big, Cummins turbo-diesel barks into life, after sending a judder through the hull like it just hit an iceberg. Without a muffler and a shorter pipe, its sounds pretty wicked and gangly, just like some of the public buses out there. I take a look at my assistant, who gives the go ahead, slightly petrified at my inexperience and slot in into first – a first followed by a lot more to come.