For those of you out there that have not seen any coverage of the Paris to Dakar race, you really should check it, it’s flat out amazing
It’s like a round from the World Rally Championship, only more insane, and somehow deadlier. This years running was canceled because of “terrorist fears”. Most of the time, that’s a BS spin on a situation but for Paris Dakar, it’s a serious worry. I remember a few years back, one crew drifted off course in the desert, stumbled upon some separatists, and were SHOT right then and there. BANG!
I know the crowd can get kind of rowdy at a NASCAR race, but when was the last time you heard of someone from the infield and Darlington snatching up Jimmy Johnson from the middle of the race and shooting him?
So clearly, you’re going to need a special kind of racing car to handle an event like this.
Here’s Mitsubishi’s answer:
The Mitsubishi Racing Lancer, equipped with a 3.0-liter, turbocharged, V6 diesel engine putting out 254 HP and a stump pulling 480 lb-ft of torque. all that grunt goes to the ground via a Ricardo-designed sequential six speed transmission driving all four wheels.
Bitchin’!
Paris to Dakar will be back next year (a safer, less terrorist infected route is promised), so we’ll have to bide our time until January of ‘09, but when it does roll around, I’ll be watching.
Source: Jalopnik
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