Tata Safari has been a popular choice among the army and politicians. It is often used by many military personnel. Army also has their own GS800 spec of Safari Stormes. Here, we have a video of an Indian Army Chief’s convoy in which we can see most of the SUVs being used are Safari. The video is uploaded on Youtube by Ajith Army.
In the video, we can see the convoy is lead by a Maruti Suzuki Gypsy, then we see two Royal Enfield Bullets and a pilot Tata Safari Storme, then there is the Safari Dicor which is followed by another Safari Storme. So, there is a total of 6 vehicles out of which three vehicles are Tata Safari.
Also read: Royal Enfield engines cleaner than ones built by BMW, Ducati, KTM & more: We explain (Video)
The Safari Dicor that is used by the Indian Army’s Chief’s seems like it is bulletproof. The Safari Dicor came with a 2.2-litre diesel engine that produced 140 bhp of max power at 4,000 rpm and 320 Nm of peak torque at 1,700 rpm. It was mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox that transferred the power to the rear wheels or all four wheels depending on the variant you opt for.
Then there is the Safari Storme. Tata Motors provided 3,192 units of special Stormes to the Indian Army. The new SUVs were provided to replace the ageing Maruti Suzuki Gypsy that the army used till now. The army spec Safari Storme is called GS800.
It is called the GS800 because it was made to carry a load of 800 kgs while maintaining a ground clearance of 200 mm. The unladen ground clearance of the Safari Storme was 200 mm. So, the GS800 rides higher. The SUV also rides stiffer than the regular Safari so the suspension was retuned to handle the additional weight.
The GS800 came with the same Varicor 400 diesel engine that was offered on the regular Safari Storme. However, it was retuned to produces more power. The engine produces 156 PS of max power and 400 Nm of peak torque. It was mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox that transferred the power to all four wheels. It also came with electronic shift-on-fly.
At first, the Safari Storme’s that were given to the army used to produce 140 PS of max power and 320 Nm of peak torque. It was mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox but later on, the engine was upgraded to 156 PS/400 Nm one.
Also, the GS800 came with a heavy-duty rear axle to handle the abuse as there was a big possibility that the SUV will be driven where there will be no proper roads. Due to the heavy-duty axle, the rear disc brakes were removed and were replaced by drum brakes.
Other changes include a matte green paint finish, towing hooks, flag hoisting mounts and blacked-out lamps. There is also a jerry that can be mounted on the left-hand side of the SUV. It can hold 20-litres of additional diesel.
Also read: Upcoming Jeep H6 7-seat SUV spied alongside Compass & Renegade