Tuesday 17th January 2012

Mini Takes One-Two in Dakar

There might be problems for its WRC programme, but Mini sweeps the board at Dakar

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Mini's WRC might have got off to a less-than-popular start in 2012, what with missing the entry deadline for the Monte Carlo rally, but the 'other' Mini rally effort, the X-raid Dakar team, has been doing rather well.

So well, in fact, that French Dakar legend Stéphane Peterhansel has taken his 10th Dakar victory in a time of 38h 54m 46s in his Mini All4 Racing.

Mini also took the runner-up spot with Spaniard Joan 'Nani' Roma at the wheel, making it a one-two for the German Monster Energy X-raid Team. On top of that, all five Minis entered finished in the top 10, making it, er, a 1-2-4-8-10 for the British marque. Which is nice...

 

[Denorth]

meanwhile, there was a 4th Rally Raid in Africa (some call it 'a proper Dakar').
Top three:

1.Jean-Louis Schlesser (F) / Cyril Esquirol (F) Schlesser Buggy 38.21.35
2.Tomas Tomecek (CZ) / Vojtech Moravek (CZ) TATRA +2.58.00
3.Jacques Loomans (B) / Frits Driesmans (B) Overdrive Amarok +4.02.22

The route: Saint Cyprien (France) - Dakar (who would've guessed)

[The Danimal]

British marque????.....

[iain1970]

The Danimal said:

British marque????.....

Problem?

[E-B]

Yeah, i kinda have to agree to question the 'britishness' of the Mini Dakar car. Parent company (BMW) German, Road cars built in the UK, Dakar cars built by XRaid in Germany.

How many parts do we think come from the Cowley Plant?

How about the results from the British Teams/drivers that competed and finished?

RallyRaidUK?
John Cobhurn (Finished 42nd in the trucks)?
Ben Gott?

[thepawbroon]

E-B said:

Yeah, i kinda have to agree to question the 'britishness' of the Mini Dakar car. Parent company (BMW) German, Road cars built in the UK, Dakar cars built by XRaid in Germany.

How many parts do we think come from the Cowley Plant?

How about the results from the British Teams/drivers that competed and finished?

RallyRaidUK?
John Cobhurn (Finished 42nd in the trucks)?
Ben Gott?

In fact...the MINI Countryman (i.e. the model the Dakar X-Raid is modelled on) is built in Austria as far as I know. I only found that out when my other half bought one, part way through the waiting period we were informed "it's now in the country"!

[ukaskew]

Excuse my ignorance of Dakar regs, but are these actually MINIs aside from looking like one? I appreciate they would be heavily modified regardless, but did these cars actually begin life as a MINI (i.e. chassis as well as bodywork?)

[barky]

seems to something along lines of x-raid's bmw x3 car with a mini-like body tacked on top .... wrc mini is more of a UK effort I think

[cptsideways]

ukaskew said:

Excuse my ignorance of Dakar regs, but are these actually MINIs aside from looking like one? I appreciate they would be heavily modified regardless, but did these cars actually begin life as a MINI (i.e. chassis as well as bodywork?)

No they are not, the only standard mini parts are the headlights, rear lenses & the windscreen. The rest of it is a spaceframed buggy with carbon kevlar panels, last year the same cars were BMW X3's.

Yes its an amazing race but the real heroes imho are those competing in the T2 production class, same route but production cars with safety mods, they are allowed extra bash plates & additional shocks otherwise they are standard cars.

This years T2 Production was won once again (for about the 6th year running) by Toyota's Landcruiser team running 200 series LC's

1 JPN - Jun Mitsuhashi Toyota 64:57:07

A standard production car doing the Dakar

Edited by cptsideways on Tuesday 17th January 12:42

[arkenphel]

MINI is still a British brand, in my opinion. The fact that it is owned by BMW does not change that. Unless we should all start calling Jaguar Land Rover an Indian brand now, and Lotus as Malaysian.

I am Malaysian, and I certainly do not consider Lotus to be a Malaysian brand.

Back on topic, it's nice to see MINI doing well in racing! BMW could so easily have put on an X3 badge on these cars, consigning MINI to relative ignominy after the WRC debacle.

Edited by arkenphel on Tuesday 17th January 12:46

[xspencex]

I've been impressed with the new format Dakar in South America, except this year there have been a few too many issues. . .one that really pissed me off was the fact that Peterhansel saw fit to run over a fellow competitor and motorcyclist in a river. . .and got away with it.

I also feel for Robbie Gordon and how he was treated and I'm sure he now has a lot more fans because of it. . .just google Robbie Gordon Dakar and you'll also see some impressive driving too. The man did not deserve to be excluded. Some might say it's the French having it all their own way. . .but the Dakar has always bordered on a shambles, and teh lines of competition have often got blurred.

But more to the point of this thread, it's great to see the Mini's at the front. . .just a shame nobody else out there to take the fight to them, VW having left last year and Nissan as well.

[Hunky Dory]

Great driving Stéphane.

Right up to the pont you tried to mow down a biker. How you escaped without a disqualification or at the least severe time penalty is a mystery to me.

[mikeg15]

Hunky Dory said:

Great driving Stéphane.

Right up to the pont you tried to mow down a biker. How you escaped without a disqualification or at the least severe time penalty is a mystery to me.

French driver, french run event. It's not a sport you know.

[Reardy Mister]

mikeg15 said:

Hunky Dory said:

Great driving Stéphane.

Right up to the pont you tried to mow down a biker. How you escaped without a disqualification or at the least severe time penalty is a mystery to me.

French driver, french run event. It's not a sport you know.

And an episode not considered news-worthy enough for putting on the news page of PH or even as an aside in this article. Just the journalism required to report on the glory of their win (and no other British competitors).

Edited by Reardy Mister on Tuesday 17th January 14:02

[Andysywv]

Mini is a little car as driven by Mr Bean, these things are in no way Mini.
Where next for Mini ? Trucks ? ...

[mikeg15]

Reardy Mister said:

mikeg15 said:

Hunky Dory said:

Great driving Stéphane.

Right up to the pont you tried to mow down a biker. How you escaped without a disqualification or at the least severe time penalty is a mystery to me.

French driver, french run event. It's not a sport you know.

And an episode not considered news-worthy enough to be considered putting on the news page of PH or even as an aside in this article. Just the journalism required to report on the glory of their win (and no other British competitors).

The french winner of the bike section didn't come out of it all with his honour intact either.

[The Danimal]

Andysywv said:

Mini is a little car as driven by Mr Bean, these things are in no way Mini.
Where next for Mini ? Trucks ? ...

+1

[Reardy Mister]

mikeg15 said:

Reardy Mister said:

mikeg15 said:

Hunky Dory said:

Great driving Stéphane.

Right up to the pont you tried to mow down a biker. How you escaped without a disqualification or at the least severe time penalty is a mystery to me.

French driver, french run event. It's not a sport you know.

And an episode not considered news-worthy enough to be considered putting on the news page of PH or even as an aside in this article. Just the journalism required to report on the glory of their win (and no other British competitors).

The french winner of the bike section didn't come out of it all with his honour intact either.

Quite.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[jdwedlake]

Reardy Mister said:

mikeg15 said:

Hunky Dory said:

Great driving Stéphane.

Right up to the pont you tried to mow down a biker. How you escaped without a disqualification or at the least severe time penalty is a mystery to me.

French driver, french run event. It's not a sport you know.

And an episode not considered news-worthy enough for putting on the news page of PH or even as an aside in this article. Just the journalism required to report on the glory of their win (and no other British competitors).

Edited by Reardy Mister on Tuesday 17th January 14:02

Woah there guys, if you had been on the event at the service park then you might know the whole story behind what was reported. I know us brits like to dig at the French organisers in such situations but the Dakar ASO were very good from what I saw and heard throughout the event.
That issues aside, It will be interesting to see what happens with the pending 'Gordon' dispute and his 'illegal' hummer mod. Gordon is undoubtedly fast, as is the hummer but he is a master of PR and already the reported stories/blogs are coloring the information reported on the day. From a personal note Gordons rantings have done him no favours at all and 'I think he do'th protest to much' for an totally innocent competitor. At the end of the day, everyone kept racing and he came 5th and now he just looks overly bitter..

Edited by TechGeek on Wednesday 18th January 11:09

[Reardy Mister]

jdwedlake said:

Woah there guys, if you had been on the event at the service park then you might know the whole story behind what was reported. I know us brits like to dig at the French organisers in such situations but the Dakar ASO were very good from what I saw and heard throughout the event.
That issues aside, It will be interesting to see what happens with the pending 'Gordon' dispute and his 'illegal' hummer mod. Gordon is undoubtedly fast, as is the hummer but he is a master of PR and already the reported stories/blogs are coloring the information reported on the day. From a personal note Gordons rantings have done him no favours at all and 'I think he do'th protest to much' for an totally innocent competitor. At the end of the day, everyone kept racing and he came 5th and now he just looks overly bitter.

Fair enough. How would someone in the paddock report on this then? Im unsure what folks in the paddock can have seen that significantly changes the circumstances as they were filmed from the chopper, at the time.

[dandarez]

Heading edited for accuracy: MINI take FIVE of the first TEN places!

AND to correct further, latest news is MINI is 'back' in the WRC and the 'Monte'- they'll probably win it too.

As for the original Mini moaners, Get a life.
Times move on, I'm old enough to have bought one of the first Austin Seven Minis ...and did, not a lot of years after its launch.
I've now got a new MINI JCW and it's a fantastic car. Some of the moaners should try one.

As for what's next, trucks. There's a lot of new things coming from Cowley so if I was you, I'd hibernate permanently!

Surprised no old 'Mini' people haven't harped on about the Cooper S and JCW recall.