TEAM ISUZU D-MAX continues to push the boundaries, thrilling fans around the country…
Australia’s most famous precision driving team, Team Isuzu D-MAX, continues to enthral and excite with its fleet of D-MAX and MU-X vehicles, performing in front of millions of people each year at capital city and regional shows across Australia.
In addition to their fearless precision driving demos putting the Isuzu D-MAX through its paces in large arenas, Team D-MAX also gives people the opportunity to see the world from a different angle, taking passengers for a ride with one of their amazing drivers as they take the D-MAX onto two wheels.
“Driving on two wheels is one of the weirdest things you can do in a car,” says Team D-MAX lead driver Jack Monkhouse. “It’s crazy – you turn left to go right and right to go left, so being able to drive on two-wheels in a standard D-MAX with a carload of passengers is great fun, and the passenger reactions are always priceless.”
Up and away
If that’s not enough to get your heart racing, try jumping in for a ride up and over the Iron Summit in their MU-X. At an incredible 100 percent gradient (45 degrees) the Isuzu UTE Iron Summit is the steepest 4WD ramp in the world… and is not for the faint-hearted. As the first diesel-powered vehicle in the team’s history, Isuzu’s D-MAX and MU-X show their true colours as they’re made to perform time and time again for the crowds. Genuine high level dependability and toughness are key to the vehicles’ success with Team D-MAX, and nowhere is this more obvious than when completing the ramp-to-ramp jump, with the D-MAX literally flying over the other three cars.
“We’ve got several D-MAX and MU-X work horses in the fleet and they do an outstanding job of towing our equipment around the country,” says Team D-MAX Director Wayne Boatwright. “It’s hard to imagine anything tougher than the punishment our precision driving team vehicles cope with.“The D-MAXs we use in the performances get absolutely hammered. Apart from a few minor modifications like roll cages, race seats, hydraulic handbrakes, Detroit locker diffs, stiffer shock absorbers and louder exhausts, they are otherwise fairly standard. They’re jumped and bumped and driven on two wheels day in, day out and never let us down in terms of performance and reliability. In my opinion they are the toughest things on the market.”
In terms of drivers, recruitment is strictly by invitation only, with most of today’s drivers coming from a rallying background, many starting out competing in Motorkhana and Autocross from an early age. All drivers have spent years developing and perfecting their precision driving skills and love showing Aussies how versatile the vehicles are. ■
To find you where to see them next, visit teamdmax.com.au
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