Ford has determined to pursue competitors in one of the intense motorsports occasions on the planet, they usually’re doing it with a Ranger pickup. Not a inventory Ranger, after all, however moderately an excessive racing construct primarily based on the Ford Ranger will probably be ready to contest the legendary Dakar Rally in 2024.
Paris to Dakar to South America to Saudi Arabia
The Dakar Rally has historical past relationship again to the primary operating in 1979 because the Paris-Dakar Rally. The aim was to journey from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal, competing in a sequence of particular phases in a lot the identical manner {that a} World Rally Championship occasion is carried out.
The distinction is the 6,200-mile distance between the 2 cities, and the treacherous, typically roadless terrain of the Sahara Desert. The Dakar Rally was at all times an occasion that claimed greater than its share of autos, and infrequently the lives of its individuals.
From 1979 to 2007, the rally ran its conventional route by way of France and throughout north Africa, however civil unrest in Mauritania made the occasion too harmful to run in 2008. The rally organizers moved the occasion to the dry deserts of South America for 10 years from 2009-2019. There the race continued in a lot the identical format in Argentina, Chile and Peru. From 2020 to the current, the rally moved to Saudi Arabia.
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In its present type, the Dakar Rally is known as a “Rally-Raid” to set it other than the extra road-based occasions of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The World Rally-Raid Championship is collectively sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme.
The Dakar, as it’s recognized familiarly, is open to bikes, quads, vehicles, side-by-side UTVs and vehicles. Because of the size of the occasion, the distant areas, and the expense of collaborating, the leaderboards are usually dominated by manufacturer-sponsored groups. That’s the surroundings that Ford is intending to hitch.
Ford within the Dakar Rally
Ford’s subsidiary for racing is known as, Ford Performance, and its factory-backed groups have raced in occasions and sequence from Le Mans and Daytona endurance racing to rally occasions from WRC to the Baja 1000. However, this would be the first effort from Dearborn to tackle the Dakar Rally.
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The first step in Ford’s multi-year plan to compete within the Dakar is to complete and be taught in collaboration with longtime companions M-Sport and Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) for car growth, servicing and occasion administration.
“To lead the charge at one of the ultimate global off-road events – the Dakar Rally – has been a goal of ours,” stated Mark Rushbrook, Global director, Ford Performance Motorsports. “We cannot underestimate the enormity of the challenge ahead of us. We need to finish and learn first with Ranger T1+ and partners like M-Sport and NWM, who bring their expertise to bear. Together, we can do amazing things in the sand dunes of the Arabian Peninsula.”
Ford plans to enter a purpose-built, high-performance Ford Ranger into the 2024 Dakar Rally, competing within the within the Rally Raid T1+ class. This class permits for a tube-frame chassis on which mechanical and security elements are mounted.
Bodywork is comprised of fiberglass or carbon fiber within the form of the manufacturing car, however little of the Ranger that competes within the Dakar will come from a Ford manufacturing unit. T1-class autos could also be two-wheel or four-wheel drive and geared up with gasoline or diesel engines. They are typically the quickest autos within the area.
The joint Ford Performance, M-Sport and NWM staff has applied a sequence of growth phases by way of 2023 and continues testing with the Ranger T1+, primarily based on the earlier era world Ranger, with a 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine. Test races are anticipated to incorporate Spain’s Baja España Aragón and Morocco’s Rally du Maroc rallies in July and October, respectively, earlier than tackling the Dakar Rally early in 2024.
“Our first time in Dakar will be a learning adventure that will help inform how we compete in the future,” stated Rushbrook. “But as with all racing, we’re not just racing to win, we’re also racing to help build better products for our customers.”
The 2024 Dakar Rally will happen Jan. 5-19 in Saudi Arabia.
Source: www.thedetroitbureau.com