Carlos Sainzat 62 years old, will seek to defend his Dakar crown with his co-pilot Lucas Cruz and increase his record as the oldest champion and the driver who has won the most different brands. He will try to get his 5th crown with 5 different companies, this time with Ford. In both sets, Nani Rome, with his co-pilot Alex Harois chasing his third ‘Touareg’ after achievements in motorcycles and cars and after several years away from the fight.
Two Spanish drivers want to lead Ford’s new track project, of a Raptor T1+ where they seek to end a historic thing: no one has won the Dakar with a new car. One of his great rivals also wanted to do it, Dacia. While Toyota It has a better rounded car, albeit with changes. But among the differences between these cars, there are two that stand out above the rest: the engine and the suspensions.
The Ford sound is possibly one of the best and deafening sounds remembered at rallies. And it was him Raptor T1+ It is powered by no less than a 5 liter V8 Coyote enginean engine very tested and known by Ford, but for the first time in the Dakar. It is a naturally aspirated V8 engine, while its Dacia and Toyota rivals have turbo engines.. “We decided to go with a non-turbo V8 engine, unlike all the rivals. And at the end of life, it’s okay to be different. It is interesting to choose a path and do it. And the noise is cooler!!”, said Nani Roma.
Here we must add the suspensions. While his rivals raced the Reiger, Ford relied on its relationship with Fox to gain exclusivity in the Dakar. Sainz told Mundo Deportivo all this.
“This is a bold project. This is the first time that Fox will be in an official Dakar team and I think this is a factor that can be important and decisive. The other part is the engine. The competition was going with a turbo engine and we decided to go with a naturally aspirated V8 engine. Finally, with the current regulations (the FIA establishes a power curve that cars cannot exceed), theoretically the powers should be the same in one engine or the other, because in theory they are all equal of 100% and There should be no difference, except knowing who consumed more or less, which may give you a difference in weight. But time will tell if those two decisions and those two different factors are in our favor or against us,” said Carlos.
Nani, developed the car from scratch
The great developer of this vehicle is Nani Roma. In March 2024, he and his co-driver Àlex Haro went to M-Sport headquarters to test the car. For this, Nani surprised everyone by getting a machine to create some dirt jumps on which to test the reliability of the parts.
“We started filming on an 8 kilometer track. There we ran 2,600 km in six days. And every time we finished we did some jumps that I did myself. We want to see if the delivery issue, which is very complicated, is okay. If you’re confused about transmissions, driveshafts or arms, the redesign will put you off for a long time. If it is done poorly you need to discover it immediately. And it turned out very well. We saw a lot of things that needed to be changed. If you don’t put the car to this extreme of a jump and it breaks, you get to the Morocco Rally in October, break a transmission and you’re done.”Nani clarified about a car that has done some 17,000 km of testing with the aim of winning on its debut.
Nani was instrumental in improving cabin comfort and Sainz’s arrival was a key point in fine-tuning the suspensions. “Then comes Carlos, another development ‘sick’ like me”Nani recalled. “When it comes to suspension, Carlos is better than me. But that’s okay, because what we ask of others is what we ask of ourselves, and we found the team that played it.”done
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
