Dacia will compete in next year’s Dakar Rally with the wild-looking Sandrider and recently conducted a series of tests for the racer in Wales and in France. The Sandrider has been homologated for the Ultimate T1+ category and will compete at events throughout the World Rally-Raid Championship. It’s built around a lightweight tubular chassis and is powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 with 355 hp and 539 Nm of torque. This engine is coupled to a six-speed sequential transmission driving all four wheels.
While the Sandrider will be a new entrant
to Dakar, the carmaker has had no issues signing some of the sport’s biggest
names, including Sebastien Loeb, Nasser Al-Attiyah, and Cristina Gutierrez.
Between May 6 and 9, Gutierrez and Loeb tested the Sandrider for two days at
the Sweet Lamb testing complex in Wales before the team headed to Château de
Lastours in France for four days of additional testing with all three drivers.
The Dacia team is now readying the
Sandrider for a rigorous test schedule in Morocco from June 28 to July 6. It
will be tested on similar terrain to what it’ll experience during the Dakar
Rally running from January 3-17 next year. Interestingly, the Sandrider’s
3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 has been designed to run on synthetic fuels provided by
Amarco, the world’s largest oil producer. It’s scheduled to make its competitive
debut at the Rallye du Maroc, Morocco, in October.
