Range Rovers in the Paris-dakar Rally
THE first Paris-dakar started on Boxing Day 1978 and finished on January 14, 1979, at Dakar after 10,000 km of tough driving through Algeria, Niger, Mali, Upper Volta, and Senegal. The first car home was the Range Rover of Alain Génestier, Joseph Terbiaut and Jean Lemordant. Five more Range Rovers were also among the finishers, together with two Land Rover-based teams. All were French entrants, but the Paris-dakar had captured the attention of the world’s media, and suddenly the Range Rover was a rallywinning superstar. The level of interest in the UK was more muted than in France, but this changed for a while during the 1982 event when competitor Mark Thatcher, son of the UK’S Prime Minister, got lost in the Sahara for six days, but the Paris-dakar never quite caught the imagination of the British public, nor Land Rover’s senior management. The second Paris-dakar in 1980 was an even bigger event and saw the appearance of factory-supported teams for the first time, including British Leyland France, who entered a Range Rover driven by two British journalists, including Tony Howard, news editor of Autocar magazine. It was one of the 20 Range Rovers and six Land Rovers among the 116 cars that set off from Paris. The UK team did not finish, following a steering failure, but having tasted his first Paris-dakar, Tony Howard was keen to do another. For the third rally in 1981, Tony teamed with John Miles. David Boole, BL Car’s director of product and international affairs, put together a package that included TRW 425R, a Range Rover that had begun life in 1977 as a factory-owned development vehicle. The vehicle was delivered to Janspeed Engineering in Salisbury, where SU carbs were fitted together with camshaft and porting improvements, plus other alterations. After a tough three weeks Tony and John became the first all-british team to finish the Paris-dakar, coming home in 27th place. Tony Howard entered for the third time in 1983 and was able to secure support once again directly from Land Rover, with new axles and transmission being fitted to TRW 425R at Solihull, while the venerable veteran was resprayed white and fitted with a black fibreglass bonnet. Sponsorship was found from Dairy Crest who were at the time pursuing a campaign to promote English cheese in France, which is why Tony’s Range Rover was bedecked with the ‘Mr Cheese’ character and the ‘Fromages Anglais’ logo. Tony enlisted French TV journalist Yves Géniès as his co-pilot, but their plans came to an early end in southern Algeria when an oil ring started to break up, and they limped back to Paris. The Paris-dakar continued to grow and by the mid-1980s there was massive investment by the major manufacturers in vehicle preparation, teams and support infrastructure, with companies like Porsche, Peugeot and Mitsubishi entering the fray. Nevertheless, the privateer Range Rover entries continued to do well, achieving third and fourth places in 1983, second place in 1984, and sixth in 1985.