The clutch is reasonably light, considering all that torque it has to deal with, and off she rolls. I keep punching the gas, but there’s plausible shove beyond 15 km/hr. Why will it? This 4038 is intrinsically a tractor trailer, meant for heavy haulage (up to 40 tones), so the first and second gear ratios are barely used, along with the crawler gear (L). The lower ratios are only put into use when the fully loaded Prima hauls itself over steep slopes, just to gain initial momentum under heavy load, preferably when the going gets high.
Slotting into third gets you the wind, and the juggernaut picks up pace. In fact, because of all the 1500 Nm of shove and unladed weight, lifting it from standstill in third doesn’t make it squirm at all – just feels like a long first. But first, a stern word about the gears – it isn’t child’s play. The shifter is intensely hard and stubborn, and feels like it grinds boulders underneath. Agreed, it’s a 9-speed affair, but you keep miss shifting all the time, making the beast lurch and shudder uncomfortably, something that you wouldn’t want to do while racing. In fact, I kept struggling with the gears throughout the drive.
On the move, she’s pretty brisk and intensely mechanical, will all sorts of squeaks and rattles reverberating off your ear drums, giving the whole experience a distinctive old-school, raw character. The ride is incredibly stiff, and that’s because the cabin, which has a dedicated suspension system in stock mode, has been locked for this race-bred example. Also, this one also rides a tad lower than stock, with a couple of leafs from the original suspension missing. Once on the move, you realize how taut and stiff the whole package is, the cabin and the chassis trying to flex itself all the time, but crashing back, bound by rigidity, more so over undulations on the track.
Is it tearing, glazing fast? Umm, no. But it’s a truck for God’s sake, and manages to hide its pace alarmingly well. The torque makes it presence felt here, calling for some pretty potent shove, and you’re doing three digit speeds before you know it. The acceleration is linear and the engine responsive, but selecting the right gear ratios are of prime importance, otherwise you lose pace. Again, with the ill shifting, infinite speed gearbox at hand, getting the maximum push was getting a little difficult.
As speeds rose, it was a turning out be a very different sensory experience. Visceral forces make your body the medium as they pass from the fixed seat to the steering wheel, wrenching your guts and muscles – a very pure machinist-like encounter, driving, or shall we say riveting home the point that you’re at the helm of some clunky, giant mechanical monster. Truly, an experience like no other.
In gear acceleration is pretty brisk for its size, but because of the torque heavy nature of the motor and the shorter gear ratios, you run out of steam easily, which means having to shift quite frequently – which as mentioned before, isn’t exactly a walk in the park. The engine has no plausible red-line, and the tachometer reads 4000 rpm as its last, but trusts me, the humongous diesel has enough pokes lying within those, rather lowly engine speeds.
Vibrations after 130 km/hr are enough to lose your teeth, and it feels everything will fall apart. The Prima T1 is said to max out at 130 km/hr, but I clocked 136 on the straights, and one adventurous, fellow journalist from a different publication even clocked 142 km/hr, much to the amuse of the attendant.
Sticky, 315/80 R22.5 rubber from JK Tyres. Also, the entire wheel rim is made from a single piece of metal.
These two cylinders carry 120 liters of water to cool the drum brakes. The water spray operates pneumatically.
Cab gets independent suspension; but is locked for this race-bred version.
That’s the diesel tank.
The Prima T1 handles and grips rather well for such a behemoth, with surprisingly less body roll, and all that can be attributed to the slightly lower ride height and the specially built, sticky,315/80 R22.5 rubber from JK Tyres. Agreed, it’s no car, let alone a van, and there’s massive under steer, but get the speeds and the rhythm right, and the big fellow is a joy to steer. On the sharper bends, it’s quite easy for the rear wheels on the turning side to get some air, without the truck tipping over. Be judicious with your inputs and everything feels totally in control and non-truck like. In fact, it’s happier around the bends, rather than wringing it out in the straight line.
The steering has massive amounts of play, and is pretty dead at the center, but feedback is quite commendable. But let’s talk a bit about the brakes. The Prima gets drums on all four wheels, which tend to heat up real bad. To tackle this, racing trucks have a brake cooling system, wherein water is sprayed on the brakes every time the driver lets go of the pedal after you drop the anchors. This system was present in last year’s truck as well. In 2015, the mechanism has been further modified. The system will now spray water on the brakes throughout the race, without any gaps. The water tank’s capacity is 120 liters. Under hard braking, the rear tires tend to lose grip as all the weight gets transferred to the front, and you need to be Hercules to get the maximum bite. But they work pretty well though. Under hard braking, the rear tires tend to lose grip as all the weight gets transferred to the front, and you need to be Hercules to get the maximum brake bite. They work pretty well though.
Getting some air. Credits: Nishant Deshpande.
To sum it up, the drive makes you lose the typical inhibitions one has about a truck. Agreed, this is a race truck, but it’s all very forgiving as well as massively engaging. The width could have been an issue, but since I was on the track with acres of space, it wasn’t a spot of bother at all. The fact that you can control such a heavy, manic beast, and even make it go fast, is a very selfish, accomplishing feat in itself. As the “whoosh” of the vacuum assisted parking brake signaled the halt of my run, I climbed down, having rekindled all my commercial vehicle fantasies to the fullest. The T1 Prima is fearsome monster where every aspect can be simply defined as “stiff” or “hard”. Be it the touch points, the controls (apart from the clutch), the ride or even the structural rigidity. As the reflected on the drive later, I felt like I had conquered something truly savage and raw.
Now that Tata Motors has taken the initiative to start this interesting sport in this country, we wish other local manufacturers like Ashok Leyland, AMW, Mahindra Navistar, Volvo Eicher and Mahindra Navistar start follow suit.
