Dakar 2021 is less than a month away and Prodrive has officially revealed its BRX Hunter which runs a Ford engine and was designed by Ian Callum.
Prodrive is well known in the world of rally for building some of the world’s best World Rally cars. And this is its latest creation, the BRX Hunter, built to take on Dakar 2021.
Prodrive has only been working with Bahrain’s Mumtalakat sovereign wealth fund (which owns McLaren) since February, and established a new business, Prodrive International to build an off-roader capable of running in Dakar 2021. Hell of an ask.
The BRX Hunter will compete in comp’s top-level T1 Group category and runs a 3.5-litre turbocharged V6 from Ford making around 300kW and 700Nm, running through a six-speed sequential gearbox. It’s four-wheel drive, of course, and carries 500 litres of fuel. The body was designed by ex-Jaguar designer, Ian Callum and you can definitely see the Jaguar influences in the rear of the thing.
An interesting pub fact is that this is the first time cars racing at Dakar have been allowed to run turbocharged petrol engines, previously they needed to be diesel or naturally aspirated. So that’s a shot in the eye for all those touring off-roaders who think only diesel will do.
There will be two BRX Hunters campaigning at Dakar and Prodrive has said it’ll build cars for other teams, and would even consider a road-going version if there was enough interest.
Exciting news for the team is that rally legend, Sebastian Loeb will drive one of the Hunters.In a statement, Loeb said: “BRX have big ambitions for the 2021 Dakar Rally and I’m excited to be a part of the journey with the team. There is an immense amount of experience in each area of the team; the best in the field with Prodrive, a track record of success from David Richards, and Bahrain’s rich history in motorsport. This combination is hard to rival, and I’m confident we will take to the dunes as strong contenders in next year’s Dakar.”
Dakar 2021 kicks off on 3 January and runs for 14 days.
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