Wildcat Support Vehicles

If a Tomcat is the home made version of a Bowler Wildcat, I actually need to make my own version of one of these support trucks.

Run by Go Raid in support of Bowler Wildcats as part of the Bowler Spirit Off Road Team in FIA World Cup Rally events such as the Dakar Rally and the Optic 2000 Rallye Tunisie. They carry spares, the competitors' personal kit and the support crew (mechanics).

The Dakar Rally is not like a normal stages rally as the cars do not return to a service area at the end of each stage or at least the end of each day. So the support trucks also have to travel all the way from Paris (or Barcelona as in 2005) to Dakar. Some like truck number 523 below can race, others like truck 522 just try and keep up over the harsh terrain.

I saw these trucks at the Rally Action Day at Castle Combe. They did a few laps of the in-field (which was a partially mown straw field) and kicked up a lot of dust. This may have been for the drivers very like driving in the desert, but it did not do anything to improve the quality of the following photographs, especially as I (like most other people who did not want the sun in their eyes) were standing downwind! It is however surprising what you can do using graphics software to enhance a photograph.

However as I am not going to enter as a privateer in a cross-country rally or rally raid, preparing a truck like one of these, even thought it would be cool, is probably a bit excessive.

I was going to design a paper version of a Dakar Rally support truck to go with my other paper models, but I found Bowler Off Road Limited have already done so and made it available on their web site (http://www.bowler-offroad.com/Model Intro Page.htm).

This Landrover Defender 130 built by Landrover Special Vehicles is only used in Europe and does not itself race, or even follow, its Bowler Wildcat. This is much more similar to my requirements and I very nearly bought a Landrover 130 ex-military ambulance as my support vehicle. This Landrover Defender 130 carries spare parts and tows the Wildcat on a trailer, which is what I want to do with my support vehicle for my Tomcat, but you cannot sleep in it or park it easily in a busy city centre.

For more information about HBH Landrovers Ltd including some desktop wallpaper of their Wildcat to download, take a look at their web site (http://www.hbh-landrover.co.uk/).

I could go way over the top and buy a Tatra 8x8 truck!

This Tatra truck is promoted by Extreme Trucks who have their own web site (http://www.extreme-trucks.co.uk/).