Despite being in the thick of the ‘normal’ motorsport season (I’m sure I wasn’t the only one hosting a Le Mans party last weekend, I have the race on in the background as I write this. Go Toyota! *Update. Motorsport is a cruel mistress...) you would have thought that a Rally Raid that happens once a year, would be far from my thoughts. But I am pining for a bit of Dakar (I am beginning to wonder that unless there is significant dirt and adventure involved, I am not all that interested...), there has been a few goes at making this a ‘World Championship’ but understandably, considering the nature of the event this has never really got off the ground. So, to get me us through till Jan’ 17, lets delve into Dakar history... [sorry bike and truck fans, but I am neither coordinated enough to ride one nor requiring the capacity of the other, means this will be ‘car’ biased]
Getting lost in the Ténéré desert whilst on the Abidjan-Nice rally inspired Thierry Sabine to create an event that could give others the same intensity of experience he had felt. While the Dakar rally has run in many a different place, and a route in many a different location since then, the apple has never fallen far from the tree.
The event was almost instantly appealing to manufacturers, although it retained a slightly hap-hazard privateer character it retains to this day.
The first event was won outright, and rightly so by a Yamaha motorcyle ridden by Cyril Neveu. The 4x4 class? Which illustrious vehicle could possibly command that outstanding achievement, like you had to ask?
It should be noted that the runner up in the car class was a 4wd Renault 4. The range of weird and wonderful four wheeled contraptions competing in ‘79 can be found here.
http://www.dakardantan.com/paris-dakar-19…
The Rangie proved it was no fluke by wining again in 1981.
Competing as a manufacturer Mitsubishi it seems were first out of the blocks in 1983 starting a legacy that is one of the greatest in modern motorsport. Starting their winning in 1985 with a 1 & 2 (Toyota 60 series Land Cruiser coming 3 & 4) and yet it is a history Mitsubishi choose to ignore it seems, for now...
Sort it out Mitsubishi. You’ve got nothing going on these days, the best defence is offence, yeah? I digress.
But then a little known Beetle tuner and tractor maker (sorry Tim, I know you like tractors though...) called Porsche got involved, it’s easy to now to forget what a versatile and flexible manufacture they were back then, and so motosport focused. So they just knocked out the winning 953, a 4wd 911 and prototype to the 959 (Range Rover was still competitive though, coming second that year).
Sabine was killed in a helicopter crash during the 86' event. Come 87' things got serious, when Peugeot rolled up with a variant of their recently banned Group B 205 T16, modified with a larger fuel tank and longer wheelbase, piloted by none other than WRC champion Ari (flick) Vatanen.
While, not for ther first time a fierce battle raged in the bikes, between Cyril Neveu and Hubert Auriol in the motorcycle category, the former taking his fifth victory after Auriol was forced to drop out of the rally after breaking both ankles in a fall, ouch.
1988 saw a record number of entries with 603 starters. Infamously Vatanen’s car (now 405 T16) was stolen mid event. I’ll leave this excellent comment from another site to shed some light on the whole situation.
Customer Relations Executive at Villa Plus
I can been seen (in shiny sunglasses) next to the car on Ari’s side. In the background can also be seen the official finish ramp. The story of the finish is as remarkable as the story of the ‘stolen’ car. Jean-Marie Balestre (neither an official or a steward of the event) spent most of the final week of the rally insisting from Paris that Vatanen be excluded after the officials had allowed him to continue under protest. During his blustering he referred unkindly to Jean Todt as ‘the Napoleon of the desert’.
Todt and Peugeot had the last laugh though. Having admitted defeat and withdrawn Vatanen’s car before the final stage they secretly took it to the finish in the back of a covered truck. Kankkunen arrived onto the winner’s podium - and drove his 205 straight over it, ignoring the gathered dignitaries. Peugeot quickly uncovered Vatanen’s 405 in time for Kankkunen (the actual winner) to join Ari (who many feel was the moral victor) on its roof along with Todt in the top picture.
The question of whether local ‘bandits’ could ever have started the complex machine to drive it out of parc ferme that night (or whether this was a staged ‘theft’ to allow the team extra time to fix a possible engine problem) was never truly answered though...
There is something about that 405 that just does it for me, the proportions are just spot on to my eye for the task at hand. I also think the road going Mi 16 (and super rare Turbo Mi 16 4wd) are pretty tasty too.
Oh, and there is this.
Vatanen struck back in 89' & 90'.
As one S. Peterhansel was doing, errrm, quite well in the bikes.
With Peugeot off to race sportscars, sister brand Citroen took up the mantle. With the ZX Rallye-Raid, that was just surely a development of the 405, itself a development of the 205 (which apparently did start life as a 205 body shell that they literally cut the rear half off).
Then Mitsubishi started to gather momentum, wining all except two years (until VW turned up with the Toe-Rag ‘Touareg’), when the Schlesser-Renault Buggy took the crown.
A concept that had seemed like a dead-end against the 4x4's until Peugeot’s recent efforts, and it took them a year to get it working.
Jutta Kleinschmidt added to Mitsubishi’s haul in 2001, becoming the first lady to take the overall win, adding to her successes in cars and bikes.
These women are tougher than you.
I personally don’t really buy into the whole ‘the Dakar isn’t what it used to be’ no motorsport is what it once was. That’s just the way it is, not necessarily better or worse, just a product of it’s time. Do you think the efforts required to win or even just participate are any less then they ever were?
Plenty of info here.
But this picture says it all for me.
It’s certainly more of a sprint than it once was. At least it doesn’t have any artificial measure to slow the participants down, as is so prevalent in many other disciplines. As just the raw pursuit of speed has become too easy a target. Dakar still presents a stern enough challenge, thanks all the same.
More intense now? Nah, same as it ever was.