Yahoo Autos Dacia Sandrider turns the 'cool, robust' Manifesto concept into a Dakar Rally race car
The Dacia Manifesto concept started as a battery-electric buggy looking more like a lunar rover in September 2022. The Romanian company putting out some unexpectedly neat vehicles and accessories of late described the Manifesto with the brand pillars, "Essential but cool," "Robust and outdoor," and "Eco-smart." By the time of the Paris Motor Show, Dacia was pitching the concept as a simple, lightweight, hardcore off-roader — still with an electric powertrain of unknown spec — designed to "stand by customers as they become even keener on outdoor pursuits." Eighteen months later, the Manifesto has become the Sandrider, not just a hardcore off-roader, but one being developed to race the top category at the 2025 Dakar Rally.
And even though Audi won this year's Dakar with the all-electric RS Q E-Tron, the Sandrider's gone gas, now powered by a TTV6.
First, a bit of context. Dacia says its partnering with English off-road racing legends Prodrive for Sandrider development, and based on the driver list, Dacia's poached two crews that were in Prodrive Hunters for this year's Dakar. Sébastien Loeb — yes, that one — and co-driver Fabian Lurquin put a Prodrive Hunter on the podium in third place at this year's Dakar. Nasser Al-Attiyah, who's won Dakar five times with three manufacturers, was also in a Hunter, but he retired on stage nine after three days of breakdowns, not explaining his reasons, only saying, "Sorry, I don’t want to jump back into this car." The third Dacia team driver will be Cristina Gutierrez Herrero and Pablo Moreno Huete, who won the UTV Challenger Class in a Taurus T3 Max.
