South Africans are set to enjoy even more proud Dakar Rally moments following the announcement that Team Ford Racing will be entering two locally-built Rangers in the 2014 edition of the gruelling event in South America.
The V8 brutes will be driven by a combination of international and local talent, namely South American Lucio Alvarez and South African Chris Visser.
Alvarez and navigator Ronnie Graue will be tacking the Dakar for the fourth time, their best achievement having been a fifth place in 2012. The crew were running third last year before mechanical problems got in the way.
Visser and navigator Japie Badenhorst will be competing in their first Dakar but the pair are well-seasoned off-road racers. They won the 2011 SA Cross Country Championship and are currently leading this year's championship.
While German-based South Racing will take care of the team's logistics, the vehicles are being built and prepared by Neil Woolridge Motorsport in Pietermaritzburg, with assistance from Ford's global product development group.
MUSTANG MUSCLE
The Dakar Ranger is powered by a 5-litre V8 Mustang engine good for 260kW at 4500rpm and 560Nm at 4100rpm. It's mated to a Sadev six-speed sequential gearbox and a permanent all-wheel drive system.
Built from the ground up as a Dakar Rally machine, it has a lightweight composite body and independent suspension at both ends. A complex cooling system, along with water-cooled rear brakes, will help the Rangers keep their cool in the scorching desert heat, while air conditioning will do the same for the crews.
Aircons are not always fitted to Dakar vehicles - as they steal some power - but given how shockingly hot it gets in the cabin, the team believes that keeping the crews in top mental form is well worth the trade-off.
Building the racing Ranger is no easy task as Team Manager Neil Woolridge explains:
"A complex jigging system was used in the manufacturing process in order to ensure that each part is built as per the design in order to achieve the perfect fit on every vehicle built."
All will be tested to the limit in January when the 35th Dakar Rally (the sixth in South America) gets underway.
The gruelling 8500km event kicks off in Rosario, Argentina on 5 January and ends in Valparaiso, Chile on 18 January.
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