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Just a reminder it's on! Different continent but still good.

watching it now.

different continent? How can it be the Paris to Dakar if they don't go from Europe to Africa?

make google your friend.

SBS is my friend, watching it now. I see. So it's the Dakar brand, but from Argentina to Chile. I guess a change is as good as a holiday. heh

Stuffed if I know how those trucks stay upright.

Check out Flytobitsy's Pajero replacement. 3 litre V6 quad turbo diesel Lancer!
Wonder when it's going to be released in the street registered Aussie spec?
Seems they took the principle of a light 4WD car and made a tube frame, off-road capable, racecar. What a bonzer idea. Wonder if it'll catch on

Same could be said for the Toureg. Full tube frame, composite body, rear wheel drive, live rear axle, 37" tyres etc. Can you say Trophy Truck? If you can't beat 'em......

No results on the official website yet. Anyone know of any results?

Stage one -
Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah, driving a BMW, clinched the opening stage of the 2009 Dakar Rally as defending champions Mitsubishi struggled.

Al-Attiyah, the reigning world rally-raid champion, dominated the 371km special stage from Buenos Aires, winning in a time of 2hr 36min 15sec.

Volkswagen filled the next three places with former world rally champion Carlos Sainz (2min 17sec off the pace) taking second, South Africa's Giniel De Villiers (2:40) in third and Mark Miller of the United States (4:21) in fourth.

Luc Alphand, the 2006 champion, was the best-placed Mitsubishi driver in fifth place (4:44) while his French compatriot, and defending champion Stephane Peterhansel, was sixth (4:54).

Peterhansel is bidding for a 10th crown to add to his six on a motorcycle and three in a car.

He won the Dakar in 2007, the last time the gruelling event was staged.

But the 2008 edition was cancelled at the last moment after the murder of four French tourists in Mauritania by Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, an act that prompted race organisers to switch the Dakar to Argentina and Chile, 7,000km away from the Senegalese capital.

Japan's Hiroshi Masuoka, the 2002 and 2003 champion, endured a miserable opening day after experiencing engine problems with his Mitsubishi.

Spain's Marc Coma of KTM won the opening motorcycle stage while fellow KTM rider Cyril Despres, who won the event in 2005 and 2007, lost 41min 18sec on his rival after suffering a puncture.

"The problem with this special was the distance," said Coma.

"I paced myself, waiting for the moment. On this route, there was little work to do with the bike, so I tried to ride my race to avoid problems.

"I saw that Despres had problems with his back wheel after filling up at control point two. After that, I tried to open up the gap."

This year's race, which ends in Buenos Aires on January 17, features 540 competitors from 50 countries and covers 9,000 kilometres spread over 13 stages - three in Chile and 10 in Argentina.

Finally found some results on the SBS website. dakar.com still has nothing.
Garland was 51st after day 1.
65th after day 2,
and 48th after day 3 so he's on the move.

Garland was 45th yesterday and up to 24th today. Kickin' some butt!
Anybody else watching this? That terrain's just begging for a Subaru.

I've seen bits and pieces of it. Somehow manage to miss alot of it though.

I see Bruce Garland is up to 18th. Go the Aussies.
Why is this relevent to a Suby forum?
'Cause it proves it can be done. I should be there now, chasing Carlos down too.

And I should be driving some kind of support car for you

Got to see it today. That is some thick bulldust or fesh fesh I think they call it

Impressed with how the VW Touaregs are going, however you'll never be able to buy one at the dealer.
http://paultan.org/archives/2008/10/25/ ... kar-rally/

In Al tubing, wow. Seriously, Subaru should do this, only they are too Chicken:p.

It still tests the suspension, driveline and engine. The VW is 2.5l diesel, and 280hpo, and they are testing the reliability in Dakar, just WOW.

great viewing, but some horrible commentary.

fredsub wrote:In Al tubing, wow. Seriously, Subaru should do this, only they are too Chicken:p.

It still tests the suspension, driveline and engine. The VW is 2.5l diesel, and 280hpo, and they are testing the reliability in Dakar, just WOW.

Whats Al tubing?

All done and dusted for another year. Bruce was 9th fastest on the final stage and came 11th outright. I don't know where that puts him in his class. I think he's in modified diesel with the Touregs and Lancers but I can't find a single reference to Dakar classes on the net. Anybody?

What about those Lancers? Bit of a bad run.
And the motorbike attrition rate?
Apparantly SBS are going to give us a whole hour/day next year.

The trucks had a rough trot too. Looks to be a very testing event, which really is what makes Dakar.
Was good to see a 450cc yamaha taking it to all those KTM riders too.

Found this lot on wikipedia -

Moto class
The Moto class is divided between three groups. Group 1 is Marathon, which are nearly unmodified production motorcycles, subdivided between engines of greater and less than 451 cc (28 cu in).[5] Group 2 is Super-Production bikes, which are more substantially modified than Marathon bikes, subdivided between engines of greater and less than 451 cc.[5] Group 3 for quads, subdivided between engines of greater and less than 500 cc.[5]
Popular motorcycles include those made by KTM and Yamaha because many of their bikes have finished in top positions. BMW motorcycles have also been successful in the Dakar.

[edit] Car class—T1, T2 and Open

The car class is made up of vehicles weighing less than 3,500 kg (7,716 lb) and subdivided into several categories. The T1 Group is made up of Improved Cross Country Vehicles and the T2 Group is made up of Cross Country Series Production vehicles.[6] The Open class accepts weight-qualifying vehicles such as SCORE International trucks.[6]
Originally, European utility vehicles like the Renault 4, Land Rover, Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz G, Volkswagen Iltis and the Pinzgauer, as well the Japanese Toyota Land Cruiser, dominated the race. Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero is the most successful model in race history, including the last 7 years straight. Other manufacturers have entered heavily modified street vehicles such as Rolls-Royce, Citroën, Peugeot (405 T16 and 205 T16) and Porsche.
In 2003 prominent examples in the Car Class included the Mitsubishi Pajero/Montero, the Volkswagen Race Touareg, the Bowler Wildcat 200 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. At present the main competitors in the car class are Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and BMW.

[edit] Truck class—T4 and T5


The stages of Lisbon–Dakar 2006


The Truck class, also known as "Camions" or "Lorries", is made up of vehicles weighing more than 3,500 kg (7,716 lb).[7] They are divided into two groups, T4 and T5.
T4 class trucks participate in the competition, while T5 trucks travel from bivouac to bivouac to support the competition vehicles.[7] T4 trucks may provide assistance during the special stages but must be homologated vehicles. The T4.1 class covers production trucks, and the T4.2 class covers modified trucks.[8]
T5 vehicles do not have to be homologated.[7]
The T4 class has been composed of vehicles manufactured by Tatra, LIAZ, Kamaz, Hino, MAN, DAF, Mercedes-Benz Unimog, Renault Kerax, SCANIA, IVECO, and 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, and Kamaz took the race up. After 2000, renewed competition started in the truck class between DAF, Tatra, Mercedes-Benz and Kamaz.

Hi all I have been captivated by the "dakar" and love all classes but you have to wonder really are any of these vehicles like the tourareg that race this race are ever going to be seen here in this form. I mean they are fantastic vehicles and would even make me contemplate forgoing a sube for one, but then they would never be affordable as our beloved japanese boxers. !

^^^^^on that note, I reckon the "hummer" was a classic, in production its a front engined 4wd but for the dakar its rear engined 2wd:???: ? and they can still call it a hummer? i know a lot of the front runners are well removed from production vehicles but that took the cake for me. Well done to the aussies (well everyone actually) that finished, massive achievement in my book. Whole things seems insane

Whats Al tubing?

did you not click on the link supplied above?

The race Toureg, doubt you'll see it here for rally like WRC etc, its not a production chassis, Finke maybe?
A Toureg is quite affordable, considering what you get for it, and it looks like this new diesel of theirs is a good one.
Its not based in a heavy chassis type like a land cruzer or landrover so thats a plus for a vehicle that afterall spends more time on tarmac.
Pity i haven't found much like forums discussing them, in depth, modding etc.
Unlike Subaru, of which there are plenty of good quality technical depth forums.

Yep loved the race but it was annoying there were so many touregs and ktm690's. If subaru were to invest money ever again in racing, what would they race for the dakar ? A heavily modified wrx just wouldn't have the clearance or angle departure etc. And unfortunately I am not a great fan of the latest generation forrester however they could be modified enough to give them good departure and approach angles. Perhaps when they introduce the diesel to the forrester, with a booster it would be mean. As mean as the touregs anyway.