SA-built Dusters take on gruelling Dakar Rally

THE space frames for the 2015 Dakar Dusters were co-designed, developed and built in South Africa, and its new and powerful five-litre V8 petrol engine was also developed locally.

The Duster’s more powerful five-litre V8 petrol engine is manufactured by Infiniti (Renault and Nissan alliance) and de- livers around 250kW and 500Nm of torque. Renault has high hopes for the 2015 Dakar Rally. The French manufacturer wants a top 10 result for its Duster team in this year’s race and relies heavily on South African off-road racing expertise to try and achieve this.

While the team officially falls under the auspices of Renaultsport Argentina, backed by Renaultsport in France, the two Duster vehicles that will participate in the 36th Dakar were co-developed and built by Thompson Racing in South Africa, a specialist race-prep business.

Renault entered the Dakar for the first time in 2013 with the Duster. In the hands of Argentines Jose Mendoza Garcia and Mauricio Malano the Duster finished 29th overall.

With the experience gained from this event, the Duster was further developed by Renaultsport Technologies and in 2014 the Argentines Emiliano Spataro and co-driver Benjamin Lozada achieved a great result. With the less powerful 3,5 litre V6 version they finished 14th overall and fourth in Class T1 for vehicles with normally aspirated petrol engines, the best result ever for an Argentinean team in the car section of the Dakar.

On the strength of this performance and new regulations for 2015, a new, lighter, yet stronger and more rigid space-frame for the Duster was commissioned. It was designed and built in South Africa under the guidance of motorsport engineer Stuart Thompson, a man renowned for his frame design and fabrication skills.

In preparation of Dakar the Duster teams also entered three of the four rounds of the Argentinean cross-country rally series. Valuable information was gained from this series, leading to some additional changes to the Dusters, and the team is confident they can now compete at a level comparable with the top teams in the world.

The goal is to improve on their performance in 2014 and to score a top 10 finish in the 2015 race. To further strengthen the Duster onslaught, Renault Argentina has also upped the logistic support of the team. More support vehicles and a team of 30 Argentine specialist mechanics, technicians and engineers will look after the vehicles.

This is crucial, as the 2015 Dakar, running through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, will also include marathon stages, two days of racing when the support team will not be able to get to the race vehicles and where the driver and co-driver will have to do running repairs if required.

Whether the Dusters finish in the top 10 remains to be seen as the highly contested 2015 Dakar Rally may prove to be tougher than ever. If the preparation is anything to go by, aspirations of a top 10 finish certainly seem within reach.