Tag Archives: Paris Dakar

Rust n’ Dust

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It wasn’t just British and Italian cars in the late-’70s and ’80s that failed to start in the morning and/or dissolved if they got wet. No, the French made some awful cars too, including today’s, the woeful Renault 20.

Sitting at the top of their line-up, there was (much like the aforementioned British and Italian cars) a lot to like about Renault’s executive hatchback, including some innovative engineering that included both crumple zones and side-impact protection.

But none of that mattered when the cars were heroically unreliable, tragically underpowered, and rusted within just a few years of leaving the forecourt, resulting in a resale value of almost nothing at all. Still, there is one Renault 20 we like, the pioneering Turbo 4×4 Dakar, with a 1.6 litre turbocharged rally engine and all-wheel-drive courtesy of the rear axle from a Renault Trafic van.

Constructed by Flickr’s NV Carmocs, this 8-wide replica of the Renault 20 Turbo 4×4 captures the 1982 Dakar-winning car beautifully, thanks in part to a superbly accurate livery and some brilliant photo editing.

There’s much more of NV’s Renault 20 to see at their photostream, and you can head to the desert in 1982 via the link above, where the lack of rain and a whole load of available spare parts were probably sorely missed by every other Renault 20 owner at the time…

When a Truck Overtook a Rally Car

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Back in the ’80s, motorsport rules were… loose. Group B rallying created monsters beyond anything seen before, and Dakar… well that was even wilder. Entered in the late-’80s, DAF’s unbelievable eleven-ton TurboTwin 95 X1 was powered by two engines with three turbochargers each, producing a combined 1,200bhp, and which – as this infamous helicopter footage from the 1988 event shows – made it so fast it could overtake the leading cars.

Piloted by Dutch legend Jan de Rooy, the TurboTwin won the truck category in 1987, before an awful 180km/h crash killed one of Jan’s teammates the following year, causing DAF to immediately halt all motorsport activities and withdraw the TurboTwin mid-competition.

Sadly we’d not see its like again, but we can still get up close to DAF’s astonishing Dakar racer courtesy of previous bloggee Nanko Klein Paste, and his spectacular brick-built replica.

Constructed in 1:16 scale, Nako’s TurboTwin recreation includes those two triple-turbo engines, complete with intake pipes, radiators and intercoolers, pressure vessels and ancillaries, a removable body liveried with superbly replicated decals, a hugely detailed interior behind opening doors, and full LED lighting from Brickstuff.

On display at the DAF Museum in Eindhoven later this year, there’s more to see of Nanko’s amazing creation at his ‘DAF TurboTwin 95 X1’ album on Flickr, and you can overtake a Dakar-winning Peugeot rally car at 200km/h in an eleven ton truck via the link above.

Trucking Down to Dakar

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sariel-dakar

Well, Buenos Aires to be truthful. The Lego Car Blog Elves love visiting Sariel’s Lego workshop at www.sariel.pl It’s the home of great Technic builds and there’s often hamster food lying around for our workers to steal to supplement their rations.

Sariel’s latest creation is this bright and brilliant Dakar Truck, based on a Tatra T815 4×4. It uses Lego’s bright, lime green, of which Sariel is apparently a big fan, plus loads of custom stickers. Twin Lego RC motors power the truck to 12kph, giving occasional cornering problems, as you can see in the video below.

The Bull

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DAF 3300 Paris Dakar Truck

Back in the 1980s the Paris Dakar Rally was a very different proposition to how it is today. GPS hadn’t been invented and the race was as much about navigation as speed. European manufacturers were taking the event seriously though, and creating purpose built machines. Dutch truck builder DAF joined the race in 1985 with their heavily modified 3300 off-road truck, driven by Jan de Rooy. ‘The Bull’ as it was known finished in 2nd place within the truck category, and we bet it looked bloody cool doing so.

Nanko Klein Paste shows us how The Bull looked with his awesome recreation in Lego form. Utilising four Power Functions medium motors for drive and with some monster suspension, Nanko’s Technic version of the Dutch legend looks as capable off road as any Lego model is likely to get. See all the photos and details on Flickr at the link above.

America, F*** Yeah!

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Lego Hummer

This might be the most American post we’ve had here on The Lego Car Blog since the ThunderCougarFalconBird, a symbol of freedom and obesity; the Hummer. LegoMarat‘s excellent model recreates the car driven by American NASCAR racing hero Robby Gordon in the 2012 Dakar Rally, which was, er… disqualified.

The Dakar Rally is no longer held from Paris to Dakar due to the threat of terrorism in North Africa, and instead races through the deserts of Argentina and Chile, but retains its iconic name.

Curiously, Hummer may undergo a similar transformation. Following its collapse in the wake of the financial crisis (no tears were shed here at TLCB for that) the American icon may be sold to the Chinese. Hilariously, a communist Hummer is a real possibility.

And with American patriots now spitting coffee over the keyboards we’ll quietly depart with a bonus photo. If you want to see more you can check out all the images of LegoMarat’s work via Flickr at the link above.

Lego Hummer Robby Gordon