Wednesday 5th June 2024

Awesome Dacia Sandrider completes initial testing

Dacia's mad mud slinger gets a step closer to competition

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You’d be forgiven for not entirely grasping the Dacia Sandrider; here was a company best known for bargain basement city cars and SUVs, not dune-bashing V6 buggies. It was wonderfully unbelievable, but sort of unbelievable nonetheless. And yet the Sandrider really is happening, it will be part of the starting group at Dakar 2025, and it now has some proper testing miles under its all-terrain tyres. 

The Sandrider has seen all the sights over the past few weeks: Millbrook, Sweet Lamb, and Château de Lastours in France. The schedule of intense testing over many hundreds of kilometres has taken in ‘rocky and demanding terrain’. That bit wasn’t at Millbrook. According to team principal Tiphanie Isnard, the programme exceeded expectations and ‘very few’ issues were encountered, a sentiment echoed by Technical Director Philip Dunabin: “So far everything has gone astonishingly smoothly with no serious problems. We’ve managed to sign off all the basic things in terms of the engine, we’ve done quite a lot more work than we expected to do on the suspension set-up and the transmission settings have been reviewed in terms of the differentials.” Got some decent jump pics in as well, so a successful endeavour all round. 

This phase of testing also saw the most famous of the Sandriders behind the wheel: Sebastien Loeb. He added “The testing has gone very well. I did one day in the UK and two days in France. We worked on the suspension and the diff to find a good balance with the car, and I was happy with how it worked. The engine was working well since the start, and we didn’t have any problems. Based on the experience of a brand-new car it’s looking really good and I look forward to continuing the testing in Morocco.”

Ah yes, Morocco. Now things get really serious. Described as the first ‘comprehensive test’ for the Sandrider, the team is now flat out getting the cars prepped for a week in North Africa from June 28th. The plan is to assess the car in terrain most similar to that coming at Dakar in Saudi Arabia in the new year. It’ll be here before we know it.

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• Behold the Dakar-bound Dacia Sandrider
• Dacia Spring on sale now from £169 a month

[damonbill]

I have alot of respect for Dacia, they make refreshingly honest road cars, but also are clearly a bunch of proper enthusiasts. I know its part of a mega group, but it feels like the spirit of Renault in the 80's and 90's is now at dacia.

[Gecko1978]

Oddly saw that and it reminded me of the new EV they have built so that's a good thing I guess

[redroadster]

Dacia is actually turning from obscure into a cool brand .

[GTRene]

hm, is that not that multi world rally winner such frans man? at least those eyes? ah Sébastien Loeb?



the car looks like a survivor and lightweight with all that carbon.

[tramart50]

No mention of Prodrive building it?

[Super Sonic]

The suspension was apparently tested on some of the most severely rough surfaces in the world. UK roads.

[ArnageWRC]

Dacia just needs a performance road version now.....

[GTRene]

ArnageWRC said:

Dacia just needs a performance road version now.....

agreed.

Honey I'm going of to the shop

[Mikebentley]

I like the spare wheel storage. Looks fantastic hope it does well.

[MikeT66]

GTRene said:

ArnageWRC said:

Dacia just needs a performance road version now.....

agreed.

Honey I'm going of to the shop

Absolutely - it might just cope with the potholes around my area.

[anonymous-user]

Wouldn't a road legal Nomad competitor be wonderful.

Edit, oops, I see someone just above suggested this...

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 7th June 20:48

[Dashnine]

tramart50 said:

No mention of Prodrive building it?

I take it this is a Prodrive Hunter by another name given Prodrive is in its typical position on the front valance, the spare wheel positions are the same and they’re tweeting (or is it Xing these days?) the photos too. A marketing / rebadging exercise by Dacia?

[ecsrobin]

Dashnine said:

tramart50 said:

No mention of Prodrive building it?

I take it this is a Prodrive Hunter by another name given Prodrive is in its typical position on the front valance, the spare wheel positions are the same and they’re tweeting (or is it Xing these days?) the photos too. A marketing / rebadging exercise by Dacia?

I’d say yes it is.

[sidesauce]

damonbill said:

I have alot of respect for Dacia, they make refreshingly honest road cars, but also are clearly a bunch of proper enthusiasts. I know its part of a mega group, but it feels like the spirit of Renault in the 80's and 90's is now at dacia.

As has been mentioned already, Prodrive make this Sandrider so I don't think it's fair to give Dacia the credit for it when it's essentially a re-brand of some-one else's work.

[nismo48]

Hats off to them

[808 Estate]

biggbn said:

Wouldn't a road legal Nomad competitor be wonderful.

Edit, oops, I see someone just above suggested this...

Yes, especially if they can do it for Duster money.

[ecsrobin]

808 Estate said:

biggbn said:

Wouldn't a road legal Nomad competitor be wonderful.

Edit, oops, I see someone just above suggested this...

Yes, especially if they can do it for Duster money.

Prodrive will sell you a road legal one for £1.25mil the cost of every Dacia made combined.

[Adam205]

Dashnine said:

I take it this is a Prodrive Hunter by another name given Prodrive is in its typical position on the front valance, the spare wheel positions are the same and they’re tweeting (or is it Xing these days?) the photos too. A marketing / rebadging exercise by Dacia?

Although it carries some of the architectural advantages of the Hunter, it is an entirely new car.