By Trackmann
March 21st 2012 was an epic day for motoring in Kenya and the world. It was the late Ayrton Senna’s birthday, Nissan had announced the previous day that they were bringing back the Datsun and in Kenya, Nissan’s dealer D.T. Dobie was premiering their Nissan Challenge film. The Nissan challenge, which we,d talked about here, was one of the most unique concepts in C.S.R by D.T Dobie where they used their diverse line of pick-ups to ferry a ton of relief food from Mombasa to Lodwar.
What D.T Dobie did with the Nissan Challenge is that they gave out four models of pick-ups they have in their range to transport a ton of food from Lodwar. The Nissan Navara, Patrol, NP200, NP300 single cab “Haichoki†and NP300 double cab “Atoti†were all used in this expedition that covered a staggering 2500 kilometres. To put it into perspective, Mombasa is 500 kms away from Nairobi so technically they went to Mombasa from Nairobi 5 times. Each model has its preferred terrain so Patrol was used in the rocky gravel roads of Lodwar; the NP300 was used on the smooth tarmac from Mombasa to Nairobi and so on and so forth. The NP300 2.5 litre turbo diesel used only three quarters of a tank from Mombasa, if that’s not efficiency then I don’t know what efficiency is. Mind you it did three quarters of a tank while carrying a ton of food and as you know the more weight in the car the less the efficiency in terms of fuel.
So on Wednesday Nissan premiered the film for motoring enthusiasts before it airs on television for the general public. This was motoring heaven, the champions that had conquered the notoriously rough Kenyan roads were all there on display for all to admire. As you know D.T Dobie is the official Mercedes Benz dealer in Kenya and there was an S Class and an E class on display in the opposite wing but no one paid attention to the Mercs, they were all trying to fathom the awesomeness of the Nissans.
At about 6:50 pm after the speeches and all, the movie aired. The “Clarkson†of this motoring film was the man behind Kenya’s most popular motoring blog, Robert ‘Bobby’ Kunga. In the film he put the four cars through its paces, he raced the NP200 against the Datsun pick-up, he put his life and ego on the line when he did a braking test with the NP300 on gravel stopping a few metres from a baobab tree. This film has incredible production quality, honestly you don’t have to be a motoring enthusiast to enjoy it because the quality and concept of this film are top notch. @MediaMk, part of the production crew, said that when the film crew went to Meru, they gave the NP300 to two renowned drivers in the region who have achieved celebrity status due to their miraa ferrying skills. One of the drivers said that the car was sublime, he was completely sold and was going to get one of the pick-ups to transport his cargo
This film will air on KTN this week from Monday to Friday and trust me you are going to love it. The reason for this is that a motoring company in Kenya has gone out of its way to help the people of Lodwar and while at it, they were having fun.
Check out the trailer below and don’t forget to watch the complete thing on KTN from Today to Friday at 8.30 PM.
[Images Via]