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VEHICLE MODIFICATION
We're going in to the desert of death - it's going to be really *** the team but even harder on the vehicles.
There it is, hey look how jacked up it is! It's got adventure written all over it.
This particular truck I chose because it has no electronics. The fuel injection system is a simple old mechanical pump.
That's what we want, we can fix it in the middle of nowhere.
Look at the beast! It is a four point two six cylinder, diesel.
It is a very dangerous environment we are going into. My biggest worry is blowing the engine or rolling the car, which would be a disaster.
We've got people's lives at stake so we've put a roll cage in, which will give a lot of strength if any accidents happen.
We've upgraded the suspension using very heavy duty shock absorbers and springs to increase the ground clearance.
We've got a lot of weight in the vehicles.
The vast distances we have to cover means we’ve got to carry an awful lot of extra fuel and water.
You know, huge amounts of water,
sometimes a 5th of a ton of water in this car. We have very strong all-terain tyres - it is not just soft sand we are driving across.
There are very sharp angular rocks, gravel tracks, a complete mix of surfaces we are travelling over.
In the sand the tyre pressures will have to be lowered, we have to get the vehicles so they plain across the sand.
That thick sand eats away and sucks you down in to it. We can’t afford that, so we will lower the tyre pressures.
How much you lower it is the key point - too little pressure risks the tyres coming off the rims.
Too much and you get stuck.
I cannot believe the punishment this engine is going to get, just on this 2 or 3 hour leg of the journey, I mean it's brutal.
This heat must be torture on the engine - we're at 2500 revs most of the time if not 3500.
We were warned to keep an eye on the engine temperature.
The biggest risk is actually overheating the engine, you are pushing the vehicles to huge extremes.
We're just testing the temperature in the engine bay.
This is going to be incredibly hot.
We've just topped 80 degrees.
Inside the engine is a lot hotter - you can be sure of that.
The route we are taking, not even the silk traders would have taken it. It's just too extreme and dangerous.
These vehicles have to keep moving - it is so, so critical.
When we go in to the Taklimakan desert the only way we're coming out, whether injured or safe, is in those vehicles.
One way in, one way out. There is no support, no helicopters, no back up.