Romanian car-maker teams up with French rally ace and Prodrive to conquer world’s most famous off-road race
Dacia has announced it will compete in the 2025 World Rally-Raid Championship including the famous Dakar Rally with a new prototype 4×4 racer that is being developed with Prodrive.
The Romanian brand has not revealed whether the SUV it plans to race will be related to the incoming Dacia Bigster, but it’s likely since the all-new mid-size SUV is scheduled for release in 2025 – including in Australia, where it will be badged as a Renault.
Either way, Dacia’s Dakar racer will be based on Prodrive’s Hunter T1+ prototype, which finished second in the 2023 Dakar Rally.
Prodrive is famous for its involvement in the World Rally Championship with Subaru over 1990-2008, but has been involved in the Dakar Rally and Rally-Raid since 2020.
Dacia will recruit nine-times world rally champion (2004-2012) Sebastien Loeb to do the driving duties.
Widely considered the world’s greatest rally driver of all time, Loeb contested his first Dakar Rally in 2016 and finished second in the 2022 and 2023 Dakar rallies with Prodrive.
Spanish rally driver Cristina Gutierrez Herrero, who has raced at Dakar seven times and became the first Spanish woman to finish the Dakar Rally in a car in 2017, will also race for Dacia.
Loeb, 49, and Gutierrez, 31, currently compete as teammates for Lewis Hamilton’s X44 squad in the all-electric Extreme E race series.
The Renault-owned car-maker describes its participation as an ‘eco-smart adventure’ as the Dacia racer will be adapted to run on synthetic fuel developed by Aramco.
Sebastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez Herrero
Before competing as a manufacturer in the 2025 Rally-Raid season, Dacia says its prototype racer will debut in the 2024 Rallye du Maroc held over October 13-18.
Dacia’s parent Renault scored its one and only victory at Dakar back in 1982, when the event was held across Europe and Africa.
Commenting on his company’s Rally-Raid entry, Dacia CEO Denis Le Vot said: “Not only is this a test of Dacia’s true robustness, but it is also a showing of our commitment to low-carbon mobility.”
Ford has also announced it will enter the new Ranger Raptor in the 2024 Dakar Rally. The dual-cab 4×4 ute will be prepared by M-Sport and the Blue Oval says it is targeting an outright Dakar production class victory as soon as 2025.
Join the conversation at our Facebook page Or email us at [email protected]
Keyword: Dacia and Sebastien Loeb to tackle Dakar Rally