So how much power does one really need in the bush ?

3 months of pain and Super Patrol, a petrol 4800 GU , was ready - well almost, a few hours before the deadline for the Vic Desert test trip I had organized it finally got onto the dyno , rich as hell and coughing away it churned out a staggering 450kw flywheel and 1000nm of torque in the 1 minute before the dyno fan motor failed.

All credit for this car goes to the kids - I thought max would be a small supercharger but they persisted and worked night and day with only one goal - the most powerful tourer was all they wanted - this meant 4inch in/outlet and a big turbo twin high pressure pumps and endless other bits.

Hurried calls got it a night run on a commercial dyno where it was detuned to 420kw/285kw RW to make it safe for the trip and at 1pm it headed off for the all night6500km journey to the next 3 days of testing at Victorias Big Billy campground.

This was to be a 4wding test to find the most capable car - not a race otherwise Super Patrol would cream the crowd.

I guess we all would agree that you need sufficent power to be able to deliver strong controllable torque across a wide rev band. This torque needs to delivered smoothly and I would add you need enough to be able to spin the wheels anywhere if required.

It also needs to be reliable and you have to be able to feed it.

My neighbour sometimes looks over the fence with bemusement - he has the D4D Prado and sometimes pulls a van, and is content to plod along never needing more than its 100+ Kw, whereas we think his rig is just to slow to be safe.

Power requirement depends on what you are doing - in high country you need little - but in the soft and hilly sand country sometimes only momentum gets you through.

We also took 3 late model diesels, Hi-lux D4D , V6 Navara and auto Ford Ranger(Mazda) however for the biggest test it was just the 2 Patrols, my - not to far from standard 2010 4800 petrol GU Auto , and Super Patrol.
(Also took a tricked up 80 series but it died early - and an ML320 whose traction control made it a dog).

Super Patrol not only had over 400kw to my 200kw but also a touchy specialized dual plate clutch and with enormous 37in tyres which made my 33's look puny.

The critrea for the tests was simple, just get thru each section, didn't matter if you
took longer as speed was ruled out.

As well as the cars we had organized a bunch of bikes to help in reconnaissance and I arrived a day early and put up signs at the campsite reading "MX ClUB" to warn other potential campers and I also installed a 36ft telescopic mast with UHF to assist with comms.

Leading the way I came to the first hard hill test and went straight up , my car felt in perfect trim , its tricked up gearbox making changes in a milli-second, but then Super Patrol (a manual) didn't really need to change.
Super Patrol followed but high up on the hilly the track had already been churned up and next we heard a bang as the dug up track caused large front wheel hop and the 37inch tyres hit the standard Nissan alloy bullbar and actually twisted it down , while the car got to the peak ok it couldn't be driven until somehow the bar was bent upwards away from the wheel.





A high lift jack may have solved the problem , however without this the budding mechanical engineer grab 2 standard patrol jacks placing them back to back and almost did the job.



To finish the repair I put my car above the stranded car and jerked the Bullbar off the tyre and an 80km drive to Pinnaroo and a 9 inch solved the problem permanently.



Ok , Score was My patrol 1 --- Super Patrol 0
Next was another power monentum test and Supper Patrol was looking good until it tried to take a side track at a step soft sand junction.
No amount of power would help here and it instantly bogged.
I was above super Patrols second stranding but trying to use my winch began to pull my car over an embankment.

We had a tricked up 80 series below and he just made it to Super Patrol position however a bad gear change saw it shatter its gearbox - it was out but was able to be a dead weight and pull the Patrol back into line where it was able to be driven out.



In all the rescues dramas I never got to try this track section so we called this one even and the score was now.
My patrol 2 --- Super Patrol 1

For the decider we had a very special place picked out - and try after try we both made it.
It became obvious that Super Patrol and its sensitive clutch made it hard to get off the line in soft sand but once it did its huge power and tyres were nearly unstoppable.
I knew I'd win by attritionif nothing else in the long run.

But the last hill was up , I rounded its uphill corner off line , quickly realized this and stopped to back up and get on line.

I reversed to the edge of the track and to late realized that there was a huge hole and side slope hidden by some bushes and I was to close to the edge.



It was close for a time but in the end we got Super Patrol positioned and it gently pulled me off the sideslope.

It was now My patrol 2 --- Super Patrol 2

There were a lot of cat calls but the sun was setting and we called it even.

I still don't know the answer to my question guys ?

Perhaps the real story is that within hours of its first running Super Patrol survived the 1500km challenge at all.