In the run up to 2011 Dakar Rally, Mr. Zhou Yong, the leading driver of Haval SUV Loong Racing Team, which is under the banner of Great Wall Motors, the leading auto maker in the nation, along with representatives from the media headed to Singing Sand Ravine in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia on November 9 for a thrilling adventure termed “Impression ? Dakar – Media Racing Team Camp”. This mini Dakar Rally has left an unforgettable memory on these adventure-takers.

In a bid to imitate the true setting of Dakar Rally, contenders of the adventure would undergo four major parts of competition, namely desert tire pressure monitoring, desert racing simulation game sprint, desert self-salvaging, and in-depth desert exploitation. At 10 A.M. of November 9, contending journalists arrived at Singing Sand Ravine from Baotou City. Mr. Zhou Yong, the leading tutor of the adventure, delivered an on-site training for these exciting contenders on desert driving and safety measures, etc. Before heading to the depth of desert for a long-expected adventure, contenders were busy with the indispensible preparation – examine the tire pressure of Haval SUV. According to Mr. Zhou Yong’s introduction, the tire pressure must drop from the normal 2.5 to around 1.5, so as to ensure the stable driving in desert with the suspension force of low tire pressure. After tire pressure monitoring, the seven racing teams kicked off the intensive desert racing simulation game and raced into the vast Singing Sand Ravine.

This thrilling adventure will spread the spirit of Dakar Rally to more Chinese people in the wake of the first “Impression ? Dakar” racing contest which was held at the end of last year. Dakar Rally, as the top cross country rally in the world, has never failed to draw keen attention from the world. However, since it is hosted in places far way from China, Chinese Dakar Rally fans are deprived of the up-close contact of the great event. This reality turns Dakar Rally into a half-familiar and half-strange event for Chinese fans. Therefore, Great Wall Motors came up with an idea of hosting “Impression ? Dakar” series adventure activities to bridge together Dakar Rally and Chinese fans. Thanks to a vivid simulation of the true racing setting of Dakar Rally, as well as the sharing and instructing of Mr. Zhou Yong, the man who has taken part in the top-grade racing event himself, all participants and audiences of the series adventure activities will find them get closer with and learn more from Dakar Rally and cross country rally culture. Just as what commented by Mr. Dong Ming, Vice President of Great Wall Motors: “‘Impression ? Dakar’ is a platform not only for experience but for communication. We hope, through their first-hand experience, our car consumers and media friends can learn by themselves the performance of cross country vehicles of China’s self-owned brands, and the inspiring Dakar Rally culture.” Mr. Dong added that, “We expect these series adventure activities will push the popularity of cross-country racing sports in China and, in turn, Great Wall Motors will gain great development momentums from these interactive activities”. Contenders from media also feel satisfactory with the activity. According to Mr. Chen Gang from China Recreational Vehicle Online, “this activity is quite different from those hosted by other auto makers. There is no commercialized propaganda and infusion of brands and products involved in the activity. We feel it is natural for us to get immersed with such wonderful activity and gain a much deeper understanding about the spirit of Dakar Rally.”

In order to give Haval SUV a more challenging stage to demonstrate its super performance in racing across wild field, Singing Sand Ravine which bears more resemblance with the actual racing setting of Dakar Rally in desert section, is chosen as the venue of the adventure activity. “The race track of this year is much tough to handle than that of last year, since it involves with much more complicated terrain and climate factors. It is quite easy for our contenders to get fall into traps formed by ever-changing sand dune. We are deeply impressed by the upgraded Haval SUV, which demonstrates superior stable performance under such challenging environment. It is quite adroit in gripping ground and breaking, and it brings us the overwhelming climax of conquering challenges thanks to the great power brought forth by the four-wheel driven engine.” Commended Mr. Li Lei, who is a reporter from Official Website of Federation of Automobile Sports of PRC and has also attended the first “Impression ? Dakar” at the end of last year. The enormous ups and downs between sand dunes have posed demanding requirements on both the engine power and driving skill. With the meticulous and professional instruction of Mr. Zhou Yong as well as all members of Haval SUV Loong Racing Team, contenders of this activity also have delightedly come to know that their driving skill get improved to a much higher level，in addition to marvel at the outstanding performance of Haval SUVs.

Under the guidance of Mr. Zhou, all contenders forced their way deep into the desert in the afternoon, completing their in-depth exploitation adventure across the vast desert.

After one-day-long intensive competition, Mr. Li Lei from Official Website of Federation of Automobile Sports of PRC overshined others with unparalleled racing skill, followed by Mr. Tian Yan from Auto Time and Mr. Sun Yanchu from Auto Sports in the second and the third places.

All of these Haval SUV racing in the adventure activity, no matter they are two-wheel driven and four-wheel driven Haval SUV fueled by gasoline or diesel, have ranked the top level among its domestic counterparts in terms of power per liter and torque of the engine. The diesel four-wheel driven Haval SUV which are equipped with “Green-Quiet 2.0T” engine and 6-speed gearbox are extraordinarily marvelous in these regards. These Haval SUV models crystallize the relentless efforts Great Wall Motors has devoted during the past two years to the exploration of Dakar professional technology. “The journey lies ahead of China’s self-owned brand auto makers is a Dakar Rally in fact. Though we still have long way to go to arrive at the peak of cutting-edge excel, but we always focus our eyes on that target. Recently, Great Wall Motors has established Dakar Technology Research Center. We are determined to take lead in the nation to manufacture the top-class SUV in the world, which are powerful enough to endure the severe test of professional cross country racing. Meanwhile, we will continually adopt such an extremely harsh setting of Dakar Rally to comprehensively test the performance of our Haval SUV”, introduced by Mr. Dong Ming.

Haval SUVs, though only with a short history of 6 years after its debut in the vehicle world, have secured an impressive sales volume of 400,000 till now, ranking the first place in domestic SUV market. In order to help Haval SUV drivers to savor the unique charm of the impending 2011 Dakar Rally, Haval SUV Dragon Racing Team will lead fans of Dakar Rally across nation to experience a series of “Impression ? Dakar” series adventure activities in the days to come!