Dacia Sandrider Kicks Off Testing Phase Ahead of Dakar Rally 2024 Debut
The highly anticipated Dacia Sandrider has officially commenced its testing phase, with its factory team drivers, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Cristina Gutiérrez, and Sébastien Loeb, each taking turns behind the wheel. This milestone marks a crucial step towards the car’s competition debut at the Rallye du Maroc in October and its inaugural Dakar Rally 2024 appearance.
In May, the team conducted systems checks at the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire before heading to the Sweet Lamb testing complex in Wales, where Gutiérrez and Loeb put the car through its paces from May 6-9. Al-Attiyah got his first taste of the Sandrider on May 27-31 at Châteaux de Lastours in France, alongside Loeb. The team’s first desert test is scheduled to take place in Morocco from June 28 to July 5.
“We’ve managed to sign off all the basic things in terms of the engine, and we’ve done quite a lot more work than we expected to do on the suspension setup and the transmission settings have been reviewed in terms of the differentials,” said technical director Philip Dunabin.
He added:
“The suspension had a real good going over not just during the test at Sweet Lamb but very much so in the test at Châteaux de Lastours. Now, we’ve got a lot of work cleaning up a lot of the details, putting the car into a state that is ready to go on a rally. We managed to highlight one or two problems in terms of the crew’s installation inside the car that we want to make some improvements, and they should also be in place before we do the tests in Morocco.”
The Dacia Sandrider programme marks Renault Group’s return to rally raid after a successful stint in the 1980s and 1990s. The car, based on the Dacia Manifesto concept, was unveiled in late January. Prodrive is overseeing the programme, building on their experience with the Hunter, which has propelled Al-Attiyah to the top of the World Rally-Raid Championship standings.
Dubbed the Dacia Sandriders, the team will contest the full W2RC in 2025 and is contracted to operate through the 2027 Dakar Rally. As the team gears up for its Moroccan test, the excitement builds for its highly anticipated Dakar Rally 2024 debut.
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