Pakelo's Africa sickness probably starts here at the legendary Paris Dakar Rally of the 1990s with Perlini Dumpers. They tested our engine oil - namely Pakelo Kentron Over SAE 40 - which is long gone out of the catalogue now. Danilo Bottaro, the mechanic we interviewed revealed us that they didn't change engine oil every night like other big Factory Teams did. They were smaller and had less spare parts to use with them. He used to change engine oil halfway to Dakar, just in case. High temperatures were enemy #1 there, but they never broke an engine.
However if we have to be accurate. For Pakelo Paris Dakar Rally was the true field test for its transmission oils. A brand new viscosity was tested for the occasion. It was a SAE 80w140, quite an innovative product for the time since only few European oil producers had it. During the rally mechanic parts connected with the transmission (front and rear axle, gear and reduction units) suffered of incandescent temperatures. Imagine the heat produced by a dumper truck running 93 mhp speed with 30-35°C outside. Parts were 120°C hot. With this temperatures an oil could potentially oxidate and loose its lubricating power. Pakelo transmission oil used during those races was conceived to resist from -60°C to +180-200°C. Full protection mode on.
It's undeniable that in time Pakelo benefited of the expertise made during Paris Dakar Rallies to bring product innovation on transmissions forward. To discover our current range of automatic and mechanical transmission oils click here.