The "Official" Dakar 2018 Thread

Let's hope it's better than the 2017 edition

 

You set the bar pretty low amigo... Yes let's hope!

 

OK I'm ready

 

would have been a good rally if at least Bryce competed but im holding out for a RG vs Bryce next year

 

The rally has to go back to Africa.

 

I wasn't on RDC when the race moved to South America. Did any real threat to security ever actually materialize after the race was cancelled in 08 and subsequently moved? Or was it moved over some rumors?

 

People were murdered in '08. Certainly not just rumours:

The rally was cancelled on January 4, 2008, due to safety concerns in Mauritania, following the killing of four French tourists there on Christmas Eve, December 2007. France-based Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), in charge of the 6,000 km (3,730 mi) rally, said in a statement they had been advised by the French government to cancel the race. They said direct threats had also been made against the event by "terrorist organizations".[1]Before the start of the race, rally director Étienne Lavigne had approved the Mauritanian legs only after two stages planned for Mali were scrapped. An Al-Qaeda affiliate organization was blamed for the cancellation.[1][2][3]

On 4 February 2008, the ASO organised the Central Europe Rally, with a Hungary to Romania route, as the makeup race. This race lasted only one year. A new race, keeping the Dakar Rally name, was organised in South America in 2009 and has continued there since then.

 

Let's do this!

 

To expand:
"When you are told of direct threats against the event and when
the sinister name of al-Qaida is mentioned, you don't ask for
details," Patrice Clerc, who heads the company that organizes the
rally, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It was
enough for me to hear my government say, 'Beware, the danger is at a
maximum.'"

 

Before this happened (and unrelated) I remember a truck having hit a mine and being pretty much destroyed (1996) :
Whilst attempting to complete the 5th stage, Gueguen, driving a Mercedes-Benz truck (support vehicle for the Citroën team), got caught up in a conflict between the Moroccan army and the Polisario Front rebels. Following the stage, on a desert track some 400 meters from the signed path, the vehicle struck an abandoned Moroccan army land mine, causing it to explode, overturn and burst into flames from the impact, killing him instantly. Gueguen's co-drivers, Pascal Laudenot and Vincent Bauden, were able to escape from the wreckage, while Gueguen, who was driving at the moment of the accident, was not as fortunate

 

I'd say it's probably a lot safer nowadays. The fact that the Africa ECO Race is there year after year should give the Dakar organizers hope that the potential is there to return. I know the teams and competitors would love it, especially the non-WRC guys. Would be amazing to see the Peugeot/Toyotas going flat out across hundreds of miles of sand

 

The problem with South America in January is that it is summer. Hot and rainy season.

I wonder if they can get Peru on board again next year and run from Buenos Aires to Quito Ecuador. Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador would be pretty cool.

 

Looking through the weather reports it seems like there can floods at any time in parts of the Dakar South America Eastern (not Chile/ Peru) route.
ISIS plot to kill dozens of Western tourists in Morocco is thwarted | Daily Mail Online
This was only last year.

 

I want to see this again - a mad dash across the lake

 

That was cool to see, too bad nobody wanted to show what they had and they all played follow the leader (my guess is a fear of a smaller restrictor in future years).

Here's a fun video from the past, Starts at 2:40, different but still fun.

 

To me I thought everybody was flat out; remember this? Wonder what this year's Peugeot could do on this lake

 

That lake was cool, the dunes down into Iquique are cool...SOME water crossing are cool...hell, I wish they'd do some REAL racing at elevation and snow rather than just transits...

 

On stage 2 the Pug,s were clocked at 203 kph. ( 126mph).

 

Which is why I think, after their final (I assume) assault on Dakar next year, they should take the whole armada and do both the Baja 500 and 1000. If these things can hit 126mph with that restrictor, imagine what they can do without it

 

It'd be quite cool to see them attempt those races, I'd be shocked if they finished in the top 10, even with a different powerplant(And everything else that goes along with doubling their power) Theyre giving up too much suspension travel to TTs(imo)

From a technical perspective-how much more HP do those engines make unrestricted? I know N/A is a massive difference, but how much is lost with these turbos.