Arie - Mr Orange
12472
Dakar 2019
Jan 17, 2019,11:58 AM
They still have Dakar in the name. I'm seriously annoyed by that for years and years now. It should be called Peru 2019. Because this rally has got nothing to do with Paris - Dakar anymore since 2008 when they finished in Dakar for the last time. So to be honest I haven't followed it anymore since they shipped the whole enterprise to South America. It just doesn't feel right. If that is fair? Probably not. But to me the heydays are gone. Each year the son of our Dutch Legend Jan de Rooy still competes. He won the rally twice, but the Russian Kamaz RedBull team is simply almost unbeatable.
Paris - Dakar 1979 - 2008
I know I will sound like a nostalgic man now, but can you remember the legendary old days? Who can't recall that 1988 DAF truck overtaking a baffled Ari Vatanen?! Man it was a sight never to be seen again.
After the easy win in 1987 DAF and Jan de Rooy, aka The Bear, wanted to race with the cars. That resulted in a monster truck. The 1988 DAF truck (with aluminium space frame!) had 2 diesel engines with 3 turbo's. One turbo pre-compressing the air before directing it to the other two turbo's. Resulting in a truck with1.200 HP (!!). 0 - 100 km/h in 7,8 seconds and a top speed of 220 km/h. In the dessert sand!! Sadly it also resulted in drama. The second truck of the team crashed and one of the team members (Kees van Loevezijn) didn't survive the crash being catapulted out of the truck during the crash. At that point DAF redrew out of Paris - Dakar. And that wa the end of that.
Stuff of legends
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Dakar 2019
By: Arie - Mr Orange : January 17th, 2019-11:58
They still have Dakar in the name. I'm seriously annoyed by that for years and years now. It should be called Peru 2019. Because this rally has got nothing to do with Paris - Dakar anymore since 2008 when they finished in Dakar for the last time. So to be...
Well, "Dakar" is a - valuable - brand
By: Marcus Hanke : January 18th, 2019-01:50
So it was clear the organizers would not drop that asset. The African routes grew increasingly dangerous: mines, ambushes, together with logistic difficulties made a complete relocation a logical consequence. Finally, Volkswagen as new main sponsor had no...
I know and understand
By: Arie - Mr Orange : January 18th, 2019-15:51
But still....when I drove around in Berlin I’m not saying I was in a Paris tour right?
One of the coldest and most miserable nights
By: cazalea : January 24th, 2019-07:45
I can remember was one New Year's Eve in Paris we decided to watch the Paris-Dakar race taking off. (sorry for the poor photos; this was about 20 years ago) There was rain, and a little snow. Everyone was prepared for it, except we tourists from Californi...