Garland Back In Hot Seat After Health Scares

EAGLE FARM, AUSTRALIA – April 25, 2011: After fracturing a vertebra in the Dakar Rally in Chile in January, then undergoing open heart bypass surgery back in Australia soon after, Isuzu D-MAX off-road rally star Bruce Garland is getting back into the competitive driver’s seat.

This time it’ll be a much gentler ride than the brutal body jolting and heavy landings he fell victim to in the monster dunes of Chile’s Atacama Desert in the Dakar.

Instead he and long-time co-driver Hiroaki ‘Harry’ Suzuki will take a standard Isuzu D-MAX

X-Runner loaded with around 260kg of BCF (Boating Camping Fishing) gear and drive it for maximum fuel economy from Melbourne to Cairns, around 3,200km.

They are the expert driving crew in Isuzu Ute’s Max Run Challenge 2011, a competition where entrants guess online how few litres the D-MAX X-Runner uses on the trip, with the nearest correct entry winning a new X-Runner 4x2, all the BCF gear worth $10,000 and a year’s supply of ‘Mother’ energy drink, an all-up prize value of close to $50,000.

A recovering Garland said that although his body would welcome the smoother ride, there’d be plenty of mind games to keep the brain focused.

“My cracked chassis is mending well and my new pipes feel good, so I’m ready for a new driving challenge,” said Garland.

“Driving for maximum economy is mentally similar to high speed off-road rallying in that intense concentration is required, only this time it’s to maximize fuel saving, not speed.

“As in rallying, you’re always straining to look as far ahead as possible to read the road, but here I’ll be trying to anticipate traffic lights, other driver behaviour, leveraging the lie of the land and so on, all to maintain that all-important momentum that you’ve used fuel to build up.

“Fortunately, the low-rev torque of D-MAX’s turbo-diesel means we can stay in high gear even at quite low town speeds without it protesting, and that’s good for economy.

“We’ll be doing the Melbourne migration thing, driving north to the warmth as winter approaches, doing a spot of camping and fishing north of Rockhampton and soaking up some sun after the finish in Cairns,” Garland enthused.

The D-MAX they’ll drive in the Max Run is a 4x2 manual variant of a newly-released limited edition called X-Runner, which is equipped with an extra $5,000 worth of features for affordable drive away prices. Their actual ute also has a hard tonneau fitted, to secure all the BCF gear in the tub.

X-Runner comes in both 4x4 and 4x2, auto or manual and features black leather seats with perforated centre pads, stylish slim-line side-steps, a chrome ‘nose job’ with mesh grille, bonnet protector garnish and fog light bezels, plus Bluetooth™ connectivity, special ‘X-Runner’ front side striping and a chrome sports bar with an integrated high-mount brake light array.

Drive away pricing starts at just $37,490* for the LS-based 4x2 manual X-Runner while the 4x4 LS-U-based top model is just $42,990* drive away for the manual. Production was limited to 210 which were recently made available through participating Isuzu UTE dealers.

*Prices are for ABN holders. Metallic or mica exterior finish is $300 extra.