Rally Dakar
The Dakar Rally Raid
(or simply “The Dakar” formerly known as “The Paris Dakar Rally”) is an annual off-road race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race is open to amateur and professional entries; amateurs typically make up about eighty percent of the participants. Despite its name, it is an off-road endurance race rather than a conventional rally – the terrain the competitors traverse is much tougher and the vehicles used are true off-road vehicles rather than the modified sedans used in rallies. Most of the competitive specials are off-road, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks, erg, among others. The distances of each stage covered vary from several kilometers to several hundred kilometers per day.
History and Route
The race originated in 1978, a year after racer Thierry Sabine got lost in the desert and decided this would be a good location for a regular rally. Originally, the rally was from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal, interrupted by a transfer across the Mediterranean; however due to politics and other factors, the course, including origin and destination, have varied over the years. Dakar has been the destination city on all but four occasions. The rally began at Paris each year until 1995. The previous year, the rally both began and ended in Paris, but due to complaints by the mayor, the finish had to be moved from the Champs-Élysées to Euro Disney. This also caused the organization to lay out the rally through different locations in following years. After the murder of four French citizens and three Mauritanian soldiers in the previous days before the start and answering the strong recommendation of the French Ministry for Foreign affairs not to go to Mauritania, the 2008 edition of the rally was canceled. Based on this incidents the Dakar changed location. The 31st edition of the Dakar, was the first running of the Dakar Rally in Latin-America. In total, 113 bikers, 13 quad riders, 91 car teams and 54 truck teams finished the rally-raid, that was notably marked by the exceptional enthusiasm the Dakar generated amongst the crowds in Argentina and in Chile.
Vehicles and classes
The three major competitive classes of the Dakar are motorcycles, automobiles (ranging from buggies to small trucks) and large trucks. Many vehicle manufacturers exploit the harsh environment the rally offers as a testing ground, and consequently to demonstrate the durability of their vehicles, although most vehicles are heavily modified.Originally, European utility vehicles like the Land Rover, the Range Rover, the Mercedes-Benz G, and the Pinzgauer, as well the Japanese Toyota Land Cruiser, dominated the race. Other manufacturers have entered heavily modified street vehicles such as Rolls-Royce, Citroën, Peugeot (405 T16 and 205 T16) and even Porsche.
In 2002, examples in the car class included the Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero, the Volkswagen Touareg, and the Nissan Navara. Mercedes Benz M, BMW X5 and BMW X3, Hummer H1 and Hummer H3 sport-utilities were represented but did not appear in the leader positions. Jean-Louis Schlesser built a series of custom dune buggy vehicles for the race, and has won with them several times. American ("Baja") style pro trucks have also made appearances, but they have seldom won.
Trucks (T4 "Camions" or "Lorries") include Tatra,LIAZ, Kamaz, Hino, MAN, DAF , PERLINI, Mercedes-Benz Unimog, Renault Kerax, SCANIA, IVECO, GINAF. In the 1980s, a strong rivalry between DAF and Mercedes-Benz led to vehicles which had twin engines and more than 1000 hp (750 kW). Later Tatra, Perlini and Kamaz took the race up.
KTM is the most popular and currently leading motorcycle. At the present, the main competitors in the car class are Volkswagen, Mitsubishi and Nissan, and in the motorcycle class are Yamaha and KTM. After 2000, renewed competition started in the truck class between DAF, Tatra, Mercedes-Benz and Kamaz.
