The longest off-road journey

IT WAS hard, brutally so, but after five days, a group of intrepid motoring enthusiasts had written the Nissan Navara Warrior into the Guinness Book of World Records in a brand new South African bakkie.

- KEVIN RITCHIE

The Navara Warrior had only been officially launched to the local market days before.

Built in South Africa by Nissan at its Rosslyn plant, the Pro 4X then undergoes a conversion by Australian engineers Premcar, in the same plant, to emerge as the Warrior with greater ground clearance, better approach and ramp breakover angles and bigger front and rear tracks.

The best way to prove the new vehicle to the market was to set a world record in it, says Nissan Africa head of communications Ramy Mohareb. “We've been building the all new Navara in Rosslyn since just after COVID, starting production in 2021. Last year we decided to celebrate the fact that this Navara is designed for Africa and made in Africa at our continental LCV manufacturing hub, by taking it into Africa.”

Daring Africa

That campaign, an eight-country 8 000km odyssey linking Rosslyn in the south with the Nissan passenger vehicle assembly plant in Cairo, at the other end of the continent, was dubbed Daring Africa.

Immediately after it, Mohareb started planning for the Warrior, the next evolution beyond the halo Pro4X model.