Taking Mini's Dakar-winning rally car for a dune-jumping ride

Who you calling cute?

Since its hugely successful revival by BMW, the Mini has rightly been known for its pint-sized urban charm. But there’s always been another side of the Mini: More macho than any Mustang, as invincible as a military off-roader.

The Mini’s rally-racing skills catapulted it to worldwide fame 50 years ago, when the British underdog won the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally. Led by Formula One race builder John Cooper, Mini’s win cemented its image as a cool, sporty machine — not merely a cheap, fuel-sipping economy car. Even the Beatles sent congratulations, and the Fab Four would soon drive their own Minis, including George’s psychedelic-painted version in 1967’s “Magical Mystery Tour.”

A half-century later, Mini again showed its spirit and endurance, with Germany’s X-Raid team sweeping the top three spots in January’s 2014 Dakar Rally. Their Mini All4 racers clocked 5,824 miles through Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, from the heights of the Andes to the Atacama desert: 13 days of brutal endurance driving, one day of rest. Originally running a route from Paris to Dakar, the race fled the African continent after 2008 due to political instability and threats of danger along the route.

Dakar remains perhaps the most monumental challenge in motorsports, a grueling two-week test of man and machine versus nature. And the coolest thing? I’m about to drive the Mini that bested all comers, a $1.2 million fantasy of carbon fiber, welded steel and diesel grunt.

X-Raid’s winning Mini sits in the sand at Dumont Dunes, at the edge of Death Valley in the Mojave Desert. (The car has been been air freighted direct from Santiago, Chile). This off-roading mecca — essentially a sandbox for grown-ups — ripples over 8,150 acres, ringed by desolate scrubland and low volcanic hills. And Dumont’s dramatically wind-carved dunes, including one that’s 1,200 feet tall — just 50 feet shy of the Empire State Building — are a perfect place to flaunt the Mini’s unstoppable nature.

But first, a disclaimer: Like a Nascar stocker, this Mini has almost nothing in common with a showroom version, aside from a windshield and door handles. The body shell looks a lot like today’s Mini Countryman, but it’s made of lightweight carbon fiber. The rest is a purpose-built, weapons-grade brute, weighing just under two tons before 90 gallons of diesel fuel is pumped aboard. It’s powered by a burly 3.0-liter diesel engine developed by BMW Motorsport. It makes 310 hp and about 516 lb.-ft. of torque. A fixed AWD system and stiff-sidewall, Michelin off-road tires with less than five pounds of air pressure help the Mini blast up and over every imaginable terrain — including grabbing big air, X-Games style.