URUMQI, China, June 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SS5 was 281 kilometers of terrain where past rallies lost more than eighty percent of their starters. SS6 added another 198 through the Andir River basin — a place where sand textures shift without warning, dune faces reach five meters, and the difference between a clean run and a stuck vehicle is decided by powertrain consistency, thermal management, and uninterrupted torque delivery. Here, the GWM TANK 700 Hi4‑T’s Hi4‑T platform showed exactly what it was built for: sustained, reliable performance when conditions break everything else.
By the time the two stages were done, the Taklimakan had done what it always does: reveal who came to compete and who came to hope.
GWM came to compete.
#251 Nicolas Cavigliasso and co-driver Valentina Pertegarini in the GWM TANK 700 Hi4‑T crossed the SS6 finish line in 3 hours 26 minutes 47 seconds — one minute forty‑one seconds ahead of their teammate #252 Pau Navarro and Jan Rosa, who completed the same stage in 3:28:28. The margin between first and second on SS6 was thinner than most people realize. The margin between a GWM TANK and everything else in that stage was wider.
The Hi4‑T platform’s integrated thermal management system kept engine coolant temperatures within design specifications through both stages, despite ambient cockpit temperatures exceeding 50°C. The 3.0T V6 biturbo hybrid engine delivered uninterrupted torque through the 9HAT automatic transmission to all four wheels across every soft sand transition and riverbed crossing. The intelligent four‑wheel‑drive torque vectoring system adjusted front‑to‑rear torque distribution in milliseconds as surface conditions changed beneath the tires.
This is not lab data. This is desert data — measured in kilometers that broke most of the field.
What makes the Hi4‑T platform truly remarkable is not any single component, but how the whole system works together. When the desert demands maximum torque for a steep dune climb, the hybrid system instantly supplies the electric boost while the 3.0T V6 holds the line. When soft sand threatens to overheat the powertrain, the thermal management circuit automatically sheds heat without a single input from the driver. When one wheel loses traction on a riverbed crossing, torque vectoring shifts power to the wheels that still grip. The driver simply steers and accelerates. The platform handles the rest.
The results that matter most are not the stage wins. They are in the overall standings through SS6: Nicolas Cavigliasso leads the T2.E category with a combined time of 22h 43m 22s. These leads were built not on a single strong day, but on consistency across six straight stages — including the two that broke everything else the Taklimakan has seen in years.
What SS5 and SS6 confirmed is not that GWM TANK is fast. Any off‑road vehicle can be fast for a day. What they confirmed is that the Hi4‑T platform — the same platform customers drive on real roads in real weather with real loads — is built for exactly the kind of abuse the Taklimakan delivers. It performs without drama, without retirement, without apology.
Through the inferno. Talk of champions. That is what these two stages produced.
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