Range Rover Evoque Excite Rallye Raid SUV to run at 2013 Dakar
The British Excite Rallye Raid Team has unveiled a preview of the Range Rover Evoque rally car it will use in 2013 Dakar Rally. The Range Rover Evoque has only just been launched onto the market but a racing version has already been conjured up.
Built by RaBe Race Cars, the Excite Rallye Raid Team Range Rover Evoque will be powered by a BMW 3.0-litre turbo-diesel engine producing 205kW of power and 650Nm of torque. The engine will be connected to a ZF six-speed automatic transmission. British Rally Raid Team business manager, David Jones, recently said,
“We’ve been working on this project for a long time. We were approached by a manufacturer, RaBe Race Cars, whose staff has been around the sport for a long time. Seeing our professional approach, they asked if we could work together. We have goals we can assist each other with, so we have now set our sites a bit higher.”
Three of the Range Rover Evoque rally cars will be produced and will compete in the rally. All of them will feature a two-speed transfer case, Reiger coilover suspension, 16-inch Compomotive Atacama RallyRaid wheels with BF Goodrich desert race G series tyres, as well as a 260-litre fuel tank for the 9000km Dakar Rally.
Excite Rally Raid team says up to five prototypes have been tested and have shown a mechanical reliability rate of 100 per cent. Mike Jones of RaBe Race Cars recently said,
"RaBe Race Cars has years of off-road motorsport experience at every level, from club to International works teams. In fact we have a family motorsport tree that is celebrating its 100th anniversary of continuous motorsport involvement in 2012. The last 15 years have been devoted to Desert racing and achieving not just a finish but top honours at Dakar."
The 2013 Dakar Rally will kick off in early January, in South America, and run for 14 days through 9000km of extremely tough terrain.
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