Renault to do the Dakar in a Duster

The Renault Duster has been making a name for itself as a good all round vehicle in almost all the markets where it is sold. Wanting to up the bar higher, Renault has now decided to field its Romanian-made SUV in the world’s toughest endurance competition, the Dakar rally. 

While it may share the same badge and have similar looking headlights, the rally spec Duster is much wilder beast compared to the standard version and that is for a very good reason; while the urban spec Duster has to fend off traffic jams and tollbooths, it rally-going sibling will be blazing a trail (in the jungles) from Peru to Chile.

The rally going Duster is powered by a 3.6-litre V6 petrol engine and produces 306bhp and 442Nm of torque. This is the same engine that sits in the racing spec Duster. Power is transmitted to all four wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox.  Given that the teams will be racing for well over 25 days in adverse conditions and terrains, Renault has fitted this duster with a limited-slip differentials, fully modified suspension and of course chunky rally spec tyres. 

The SUVs will be piloted by two teams comprising participants from Argentina– Emiliano Spataro and Benjamin Lozada in the first Duster and Francisco José García and Mauricio Malano in the second Duster.  

The Dakar Rally since its inception in 1979 has always been a hotbed for manufacturers to test out the reliability of their machines due to the demanding nature of the course (reliable rally car=reliable road car). It began at Paris every year and terminated at Dakar in Senegal a month-and-a-half later. However, it was moved to South America in 2008 (the name has stayed on though) after it was perceived that there was a threat to the participants lives in Maurtina and has stayed there ever since.