Based on Ford’s Bronco and Raptor SUVs, the car has a steel spaceframe with carbon fibre body panels. Its front and rear independent double-wishbone suspension ensures both adjustability which can take a punishing few weeks in the Saudi desert.
The huge 17.5 x 8-inch aluminium wheels with 37-inch tyres are also able to a pounding on rocks, dunes and dirt, with having as few punctures as possible key to winning Dakar.
This monster 4×4 truck is eating up the sand dunes, as shown in the results.
Mattias Ekstrom took an overall third place finish on the car’s Dakar debut last year, in a joint effort with M-Sport, and set a searing pace in this year’s prologue.
“I like the car a lot. I think M-Sport and Ford have made a good evolution [from] last year,” he said. “Already, for the first shot, I think the car was good but now I feel for my liking of driving this is very good car, it is very agile and the suspension is also great, so I don’t have any excuses!”
Sainz sits fifth, eight minutes behind the leader, in the general classification after Stage 5
Dakar
Now the stage wins are starting to rack up, the works concern helped by that trio of crack privateer teams.
However, despite the immediate success of the Raptor this year and last, success is far from given.
The Dacia team, with its Sandrider using an engine derived from a Nissan 400Z, has Dakar star Nasser Al-Attiyah, WRC all-time great Sebastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez in its ranks, while Toyota has been taking stage victories this year too.
“The Dacias were already on a good level last year,” said Sainz prior to this season’s event. “I think also last year we were not too bad but probably this year, the Dacias are better, we are better and Toyota are also better.
“I think it’s very, very tight – we saw that already in Morocco. I think at least twelve drivers can win the race”.
Raptor is running under the Ford Racing banner for the first time
Dakar
Recalling that no-holds barred approach to Le Mans with its GT40 in the late ‘60s, Ford managed to lock out six of the top seven positions of Dakar’s Stage 5, with Guthrie heading Roma and Prokop. Krotov, Ekstrom and Sainz came in fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.
That first Ford win at Le Mans ’66 formed the first of a quartet of wins. Will the Raptor and its stars create a similar off-road dynasty for the Blue Oval?
