Russian Truck Manufacturer Kamaz

Ah yeah, this could be fun. Fun? About one truck biz buying a chunk of another truck biz? How the Hell could that be fun? Look at the picture above. That is one of the Kamaz trucks racing in the Paris-Dakar race. For the uninitiated, Paris-Dakar is about as out there as you can get. Most of the normal off road stuff applies. Rocks, sand, dunes the size of skyscrapers, navigational hazards, cliffs, that sort of thing. But the Paris-Dakar also features such novelties as guerilla factions armed with AKs (abducted and killed two competitors in the mid-80s) and the occasional mine field.

One of those mine fields caught out the factory Kamaz team a few years back. They wandered off course and onto the edge of a WW II era mine field. BOOM! One of the things blew the right rear completely off. I mean the tire, the wheel, the upright, the brake & caliper
and the suspension bits - gone. The Kamaz team response? Pull out the spares and carry on. I believe that particular truck finished either 3rd or 4th that year.