Peterhansel wins Dakar Rally in a Mini, third victory for iconic small car

Stephane Peterhansel of the X-Raid team won the 34th edition of the Dakar Rally by taking victory in 14 stages of the gruelling race across South America. The Frenchman drove consistently to mark his place on the 14 stages and finish the race with a mammoth 40 minute advantage. The Mini All4 Racing was extremely successful this year, claiming four spots in the top-ten finishers.

However, the hero of the race was Perterhansel’s Mini All4 Racing that has now claimed its third successive title – two have these are with the Frenchman. The Mini All4 Racing is designed by Mini’s parent company BMW. It is powered by a twin-turbo 3.0-litre diesel engine which produces 300bhp and what we assume to be a monstrous amount of torque to fling the Countryman based racer through the forests of South America.

The top speed for this machine is 178kmph which is quite sufficient given that it is going off-road all the time. Power is transmitted to all four wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox. BMW has built most of the compact SUV using large amounts of carbon fibre to keep the weight down and make it as strong as possible. It has been stripped of all known luxuries, once again to keep the weight down as well keep the car true to its purpose of going dune bashing/mud plugging.

Source: X-raid and Minimotorsport