On November 25, the quays of the port of Marseille looked like a nostalgic journey.
We would have thought we had gone back forty years with the presence of 148 vehicles which wrote the most beautiful pages of the golden age of Paris-Dakar.
These cars were waiting to take the boat to go to Saudi Arabia, the scene of the 44th edition of the Dakar and the second edition in Classic version.
Since last year, ASO (Amaury Sport Organization, the organizer of the event, has decided to launch, in parallel with the event, a race reserved for models of the past. If only 28 teams were at the start in 2021, Sign of a craze for retrospectives, their number has been multiplied by five for this second edition.
To discover
What responsibility at the wheel of an “autonomous car”?
Stephan Lamarre's Sunhill 141 buggy during checks on the port of Marseille.
Stephan Lamarre
Range Rovers identical to the one that allowed René Metge to win his first victory in the African classic in 1981 with the journalist Bernard Giroux alongside Mitsubishi Pajero but also Porsche 911 and old factory cars like the Peugeot 205 T16 Grand Raid , victorious in the 1987 and 1988 editions, and the unbeatable Citroën ZX Rallye Raid at the start of the 1990s. This royal line-up also includes buggies such as the Sunhill 141 which Stéphan Lamarre is entering for the second consecutive year.
Sunhill buggies, named after their creator, won the 2WD category in the early 1980s.
As at the time, navigation will be one of the components of victory.
But not only.
The Dakar Classic is a regularity event.
For each special stage, you have to respect an average which is defined by a multitude of average gaits.
At each stage, depending on the section taken (tracks, crossings of villages, etc.), the speed must be adapted, favoring the safety of all.
Crews have the choice between several medium speeds: low, intermediate or high.
It is the age of the vehicle that defines the average.
A vehicle over 40 years old like the Sunhill buggy will have to adopt the “bass”.
A. Krassovsky
Like the crews of the modern Dakar, the participants of the Dakar Classic will benefit from a course modified by almost 70% and favoring sand and dunes. The only difference with the participants in the rally-raid event which is part of the world championship of the specialty, the Dakar Classic follows a parallel route. To meet the technical specifications of the vehicles, the unpaved part of the stages never exceeds 300 kilometers. But it is nearly 8,000 km that await the competitors.
See you on January 1, 2022 for the start set in Jeddah, the seaside city where Dakar drivers discovered Saudi Arabia in 2020 and where the Formula 1 world championship has just stopped.
After passing through the capital Riyadh, the survivors will once again target the shores of the Red Sea on January 14 for the arrival.
The Dakar 2022 route. ASO