Sand scorcher
The Cross-Country Rally World Cup’s flagship race event, the Dakar Rally, is the pinnacle for those who take part in off-road Rally Raid competition. The Dakar Rally first ran in 1978, from Paris, France to Dakar in Senegal, West Africa. However, owing to concerns about terrorist attacks in the Sahara region, from 2009-2019 South America hosted the event. In 2020, the event moved to Saudi Arabia, where it remains for 2021.
The Dakar Rally is known as a marathon event, primarily owing to its length, typically between 7000 and 10,000km, but the Rally Raid format is the same as conventional rallying, with each event broken up into point-to-point stages. The length of each stage on the Dakar varies from short sprints to distances of up to 800-900km.
The top class of cars allowed to compete in the Dakar Rally is called T1. According to engine type (petrol or diesel) and driveline (two or four-wheel drive), these prototype off-road racing machines subdivide. The regulations also set the weight of the car according to engine type and capacity.
We haven’t broken anything short of components designed to act as a fuse in the system and protect the main frame
Paul Doe, chief designer at Prodrive
Most of the T1 cars have a tubular spaceframe chassis with bodywork representing the manufacturer from which the powertrain has been selected. Several manufacturers have been represented in T1 over the years including Peugeot, Volkswagen, BMW, Ford and Toyota. New for 2021, however, is a T1 entry from Prodrive International – The BRX Hunter.
Prodrive’s chief designer, Paul Doe, explains the philosophy behind the project: ‘We’ve been looking at Dakar for a long time. In fact, even as long ago as the end of the Mini WRC programme
