NAVAR AND AMAROK TOE TO TOW

Tractor and farm Trader has placed the Nissan Navara at the top of their towing list in a recent test. Taking five of the most popular pick-ups, editor Howard Sherren and his team spent time putting them through their paces off-road with a trailer loaded with 300kg bales of hay.

The Navara had plenty of pulling power, excellent steering and comfort, with a firm ride it felt the most stable when towing and achieved the best traction. The VW Amarok followed closely on its heels with excellent build quality, new features and driveability. T&fT considered that the VW might be considered better value when compared to the V6 Outlaw Navara’s high purchase price.

WORLD RECORD BROKEN

While we were struggling with Christmas trees, buying unnecessary presents and unwanted Brussel sprouts, some four-wheel drivers were breaking world records – in Antarctica. Regular readers will remember our feature in the September issue on the amazing Polar RTV.

We drove the mighty beast (based on a Toyota Tacoma pick-up) at Brands Hatch, a slightly incongruous venue for a machine designed to be the fastest, motorised vehicle to reach the South Pole, unsupported. The intention had been to arrive at the Pole exactly 100 years after the first man to do it, Norwegian Roald Amundsen. The weather gods and a broken wishbone put paid to that, but driver Jason De Carteret and engineer Kieran Bradley made repairs, tried again, and still managed to break the record and travelled from Union Glacier, Patriot Hills, to the South Pole in an astonishing 39 hours and 54 minutes. That absolutely smashed the previous record of two days 21 hours and 21 minutes, by over 29 hours. Amundsen had taken some 56 days to do a similar trip…

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