DRIVEN. Dakar Rally MINI ALL4 Racing
Features | crankandpiston.com / EVO Middle East
In a regional exclusive, MINI and the X-Raid Team invite James to drive a proper, Dakar-spec ALL4Racing. As you’d expect, our man is terrified!
Originally posted – 20 April, 2014 | crankandpiston.com
I’m a little shell-shocked as I remove my helmet. Members of the MINI X-Raid PR team are actually concerned as I struggle to form coherent sentences. Though I knew that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, I never expected it would have this kind of impact on me.
Standing to my right is the Monster Energy X-Raid MINI ALL4 Racing endurance rally car, winner of the 2014 Dakar Rally. And I’ve just driven it.
Rewind a couple of hours. crankandpiston.com is one of only a few publications worldwide to have been invited to this drive event. And given both MINI and X-Raid Team’s endurance racing records, it’s an invite worth having.
In 2003, Germany’s X-Raid Team became the first outfit to enter a diesel-powered vehicle for the Dakar with the BMW X5, a trend still followed today. In 2011, X-Raid joined forces with MINI, winning the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge on its debut and successfully defending Leonid Novitskiy’s FIA World Cup title in its rookie campaign. In 2012, the X-Raid MINI took a one-two on its Dakar Rally debut, a feat it repeated the following season. The X-Raid MINIs went one better in January this year by claiming the hat trick with a decisive podium lockout ahead of stellar opposition from Hummer and Toyota. Even the team’s current driver line-up boasts former Dakar winners Joan ‘Nani’ Roma and Nasser Al-Attiyah as well as the most successful of them all, 11-time winner Stephane Peterhansel.
And MINI has invited me, a lad from the North of England, to drive its Dakar contender in the desert. Nerves and excitement go hand-in-hand today like never before.
Said nerves are put to rest slightly when, at base camp, a few clicks from Dubai’s Bab Al Shams desert resort, I’m introduced to X-Raid mechanical wizard, Miguel Moreira. He’s been with the team since the day it started, and boasts enormous experience from both the World Rally Championship and national rallying in his native Portugal among other disciplines. Having worked on the ALL4 Racing from the ground up, there’s not a lot he doesn’t know about either test model here today. As he mentions, “I don’t need the book!”
The chassis comes from Heggemann Autosport in Germany and is five per cent larger than that of the production ready Countryman, whilst the lightweight bodywork has been manufactured in France. The Reiger Racing Suspension – THE key component for endurance rallying, Miguel explains – connects to regulation Michelin All-Terrain tyres, while the AP disc brakes use a combination of water and air-cooling to battle the ungodly desert heat. To ensure as much indestructability as possible, each 1900kg model – prepared across one month by four mechanics – conducts 15-20 days of pre-season testing in Morocco. The ALL4 Racing may be similar in physique to the Countryman, but the MINI badges and headlights are all they have in common.
That also goes for the 3.0-litre TwinPower turbo diesel six-cylinder under the bonnet. It packs 307bhp and can whip the ALL4 Racing to a top speed of 185kph on sand, but it’s the 516lb ft of torque (which can be upped to 664lb ft depending on the terrain) that Miguel sees as the crucial element. “For this kind of racing, horsepower is not that important” he explains. “The torque is much more vital: how else do you expect to climb the dunes and mountains?”
It’s an extraordinary package, one that, as you would expect, is sinfully expensive, coming in at a cool €1 million (around $1.4 million). That’s not all, since to compete on the Dakar itself, including spares, team personnel, and support trucks, investment in these machines ramps up another €860,000 ($1.2million), give or take.
If that wasn’t enough, in just two days time, the ALL4 Racing MINI will land in Qatar for the Sealine Cross Country Rally, the fourth round of the prestigious FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies that X-Raid driver Vladimir Vashilyev currently heads.
The message then is clear: I. Must. Not. Stack. It.
Fortunately, there’s little time for panic, since a race suit and helmet are soon being thrown in my direction.
The actual run will take place in the Monster Energy X-Raid MINI (chassis #10), getting into which – standing as I do at 6’ 2” – is a bit of a faff. Miguel, who, despite the 40-degree temperatures, still has a big smile on his face, tells me to hold onto the roll cage with my right hand, put my right leg into the driver’s side footwell, and plonk myself into the seat before dragging my left foot in afterwards. Several contortionist attempts later – aided by Miguel taking my left foot and twisting it in a way I didn’t think physically possible – I’m finally in the Recaro bucket, onto which the words ‘Nani Roma’ have been stitched. That would be 2014 Dakar winner Joan ‘Nani’ Roma. Once again, the realisation of what I’m about to do strikes me hard.
As Miguel connects the microphone in my helmet into the car’s radio system and begins locking my six-point race harness, I turn and shake hands with ’01 and ‘03 Dakar winner Andreas Schulz, my co-driver for the run. The amiable German is on his seventh run of the day and is clearly starting to feel the heat in the un-air-conditioned cabin through his flame retardant racesuit. It doesn’t appear to knock his enthusiasm though: flashing a smile at me as he shakes my hand, he asks “English? Deutsch?” I’m clearly in good hands.
Speaking of which, a slim, almost farcically simple steering wheel is soon being placed between my gloves and slotted into place on the steering column in front of me. To my right is a six-speed sequential Sadev gearbox, in front of which on the dashboard is a small sticker – ‘Up is Down, Down is Up’ – in deference to the direction of the gear changes. There’s more switch boxes and analogue readouts on the dashboard than I could even attempt to know what to do with, including a housing in front of Andreas that controls the car’s GPS and race control radio communication. When competing for two weeks across 8,500km of South America for more than 12 hours per day on an event that has claimed the lives of nearly 30 competitors (including Belgian biker Eric Palante this January), the X-Raid team and event organisers take absolutely no chances. Even the blood types of the MINI’s occupant are written on the bonnet in case urgent medical attention is required.
A tap on my arm from Miguel tells me that I’m ready for the off, and I’m soon being told by Andreas through the earpiece in my helmet to depress the clutch, pull the gearlever down to select first, and pull slowly forward into the abyss before us.
Am I really about to do this?
It’s not long before the earpieces really start to earn their money. As I shift into third and the speedometer needle rises, the high-pitched roar from the biturbo six-cylinder under the bonnet is deafening, even through my helmet. Were Andreas and I not connected to the same system, I’d have no hope of hearing his instructions.
Our first ‘stage’ takes in a kilometre or two of high-speed gravel, and the speed readout on the panel just in front of me is soon in the triple digits (though with my eyes glued to the landscape flashing past me, I have no idea how fast we are actually going). The Recaro’s mounted position means I’m sitting pretty close to the steering wheel, which requires minute adjustments to counter the terrain as we motor along. We’re quickly into the fifth as the biturbo kicks in acceleration forcefully, though not, I’m surprised to find, violently. The sequential gears slot home almost instantaneously, and as we approach the first of many red marker flags dotted about our course, it dawns on me just how quickly we’ve covered the opening stretch.
The flag signals a sharp left turn in second gear. Banging the gear lever down at Andreas’ instruction (no braking required), the front end is on the move into the turn with little effort, despite the 1,900kg regulation kerb weight. The poise of the vehicle though is not what’s caught me off-guard though. The ride, thanks to the Reiger Racing Suspension, is much smoother than I’d expected. There’s still a lot of jostling but I had expected the stiffened chassis to bounce me out of my bucket seat and through the windscreen across even the smallest of dunes. But it doesn’t. It’s amazingly supple, allowing me to control the vehicle without having to wrestle it.
We’re soon into the deeper stuff, over one dune and then into a high-speed sandy straight. Movement through the wheel as the enormous Michelin All-Terrains bounce across the sand, is much greater now, and though the ALL4 Racing is clearly doing most of the heavy work for me, still I’m having to put my fair share of effort in. Into the next sharp left-hander, I once again bang down the gears and aim the front end at the turn. This time though, the back end has started to step out on the loose sand (despite the four-wheel drive) catching me completely off-guard, and I’m soon turning into the steer to catch the rear. My surprise has clearly amused Andreas sitting next to me who simply says “go, go, go” and waves a hand at the windscreen. The problem is, I can’t.
I do want to go faster – I really, truly do – but my right foot is refusing to oblige. Our route takes in several dunes now (all taken in second gear) and from the top, the world completely disappears, returning only when the MINI crests the peak. To Andreas, who’s seen this more times than my feeble experience could ever appreciate, it’s all part of the job. For me though, the sight of the windscreen hurtling towards what appears to be a wall of sand makes my heart skip a beat and causes my foot to lift slightly. Even though I have a two-time Dakar winner next to me directing what I should do – “it’s okay, more speed is good” – my brain refuses to accept that what I’m doing is actually possible: ‘to climb this dune, at this speed, in this gear’, it’s telling me, ‘would be suicide’. And while I desperately try to ignore that voice in my helmet (mine, not Andreas’), I can’t.
As a result, my drive in the MINI doesn’t even come close to showing me its true potential.
Only when reigning Dakar winner Nani Roma offers to take me for a 155kph thrash across the sands do I see what punishment the MINI (and, for that matter, my back) can take.
I don’t even need to look at the digital readout to know that Nani hits sixth gear and triple figure speed faster than I could ever dream. Once again, even though the pace we hit across the dunes is rattling us both around the cabin like popcorn, it’s the ride on the gravel-covered straights that truly baffles. How the Reiger suspension can take this much punishment and still offer a ride that doesn’t erode your spine to dust is incredible.
Technically astute, surprisingly easy to drive and capable of barrelling through anything that stands in its way, the ALL4 Racing is an absolutely phenomenal machine.
After our ten-minute run, we pull back into base camp using a brake pedal that feels like a lump of wood and which I have to stand on for any signs of life. My entire body is filled with adrenaline, and I can barely stop my hands from shaking. I still can’t quite comprehend what I’ve just driven: a MINI ALL4 Racing endurance rally car alongside a two-time Dakar winner. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and yet it will be some minutes before I can form any words at all about the experience.
The MINI itself is a triumph of engineering and a formidable vehicle on the endurance rallying stage, of that there is no question. But for me, having experienced first-hand what driving a Dakar machine is really like, the gulf of talent between professionals like Nani Roma and Andreas Schulz, and myself is beyond comprehension. The MINI X-Raid ALL4 Racing may be a superb piece of kit, but the skill to use it to its full potential is what really knocks me spellbound.
Images | X-Raid and MCH Photo
Features | crankandpiston.com / EVO Middle East | James Gent