Star was a Polish truck maker in the communist era. The state-owned company made several versions of was then a rather heavy duty truck. Like most trucks, many models shared cabs but frames varied in strength, length, and capacities. Star, named after the city of Starachowice where truck were made since World War II, made several models. Some of most popular were the 200-models, used throughout Poland for variety if services. It’s not uncommon to see one even today.
The 266 model was the heavy duty military version. In production since the 1970s, the 3.5-ton 6×6 truck so good that it was used by several countries and saw combat in Afghanistan. In 1988 two teams even entered the grueling Paris-Dakar rally with the 266. Further, despite MAN having taken over Star, there is exists a company that overhauls and modernizes the classic Star 266. This video made by an off-roading company in southwestern Poland shows some off-road capabilities of this aged rig.
Star 266 goes off-roading
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2 responses to “Star 266 goes off-roading”
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For a second you could see four people trying to pull the 5-ton vehicle out of the mud… every little bit helps I guess.
speaking of mud, it looks like mud-going could be improved with other tires (moar!), but maybe the tread is looking shallow because it already consumed 2″ of mud. I’m no expert, though.
I remember these, I’ve seen a couple of these (probably Star 200s) doing regular business about 15 years ago – wiki says they made 630k vehicles in six decades, quite an achievement. The production site still exists, they are making Neoplan and MAN vehicles, says the interweb. -
It does all right off road, but I think a Tatra would do better in those conditions.
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