For a group of college kids, the students at Chuoh Technical School sure know how to create a rally raid winner. The school has long been a partner of the Asia Cross Country Rally, which allows students to build vehicles for interested competitors as well as being crew members. For the 2024 edition, CTS General Automobile Maintenance Department students designed a Suzuki Jimny Sierra that Roslyn Shen and Nada Simaraks will pilot.
Although the Jimny Sierra is a legitimate SUV, the CTS version is instead a pickup-style truck created by taking a standard Sierra then modifying it. The body was cut at the B-pillar while the body-on-frame was sliced at the centre, allowing the creation of a “truck bed” that extended the vehicle length by thirty centimetres. The “bed” will be used to store spare tyres and tools; a bar was implemented to keep the parts inside when in motion. Over fenders have also been installed so that the Yokohama Geolandar M/T G003 tyres could be fitted on, while two hooks are attached at the rear fender. At the front is a new automatic transmission oil cooler.
Other aspects like the width and engine have been left untouched. The latter stems from the Sierra being a two-year development process, so CTS would like to gauge the stock engine’s capabilities in 2024 before making changes for 2025.
The car complies with T1 (Ultimate) regulation and will compete in the T1G subcategory. Satoshi Takeno and Tadamune Nakai are also racing Sierras in T1G, though theirs are still the production models.
Fourth-year students Ue Sugawara, Keigo Tanimoto, and Shun Yamamoto will work as mechanics for the Sierra. Sugawara was responsible for building the body-on-frame, Tanimoto previously worked at Rally Hokkaido. Yamamoto, who did not have much interest in cars prior to CTS, described the build as a “trial and error period” that was “intense.”
“I want to work in the car industry,” Tanimoto told Auto Messe. “I want to see how I can grow, such as what I couldn’t do in Hokkaido last year.”
CTS is a Japanese automotive college with two campuses in Chiba Prefecture. In 2023, students from the school built the Toyota Fortuner that Takuma Aoki drove to the overall victory. Aoki will seek to defend his title in the Fortuner in August, while CTS will also send three students to support the Toyota Land Cruiser 150 Prado of actor Show Aikawa.
Shen, a Taiwanese driver, has been competing at the AXCR for a decade; her last start was in a Toyota Hilux as the co-driver for Chen Yi Wen, finishing twenty-third overall. Simaraks is the daughter of Aoki’s navigator Ittipon Simaraks.
The 2024 AXCR, held exclusively in Simaraks’ home country of Thailand, runs 12–17 August.
