Dakar 2016

[mousti]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz_tpSNQRNg

[MartijnS]

Twitteraccount of the Renault Truck #509 of vd Brink posted a photo of the truck burned down to the ground, they removed the tweet however.

Edit; nothing can be removed from the internet

[Rally Power]

You stated that they chose 2WD because they were afraid to loose with other 4WD. Now You even claim they admitted so. That's a misinterpretation as nothing like that is written in Famin's quote You posted. He just said they chose an alternative way as they saw certain benefits of doing so. Nothing more nothing less. You may feel to see something between the lines what isn't there.
The point is that no manufacturer decides to spend billions to be just a bunch of shiny looking losers. I'm pretty sure that they chose what they chose because their analysis showed them it can be beneficial. The fact they didn't succeed in the first attempt doesn't change it.

The "Since they've mastered four-wheel-drive, we have chosen to focus on optimising two-wheel-drive" Famin words are chrystal clear and there's no possible misinterpretation on how the 2wd option come as an alternative solution in order to face limited time and human resources on Peugeot '15 Dakar project.

But you're probably right in one point: none of the billion funded motorsport failed programes have failed by purpose...

[focus206]

Congratulations to Loeb, very nice start. That mud stopped Roma, Gordon and others, did anyone retire? Also, can we expect more sections like that in next days?

[dimviii]

What happened and Kamaz are not on pace?
http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2016/fr/e...ons.html#ancre

[MartijnS]

Dutch for the win! I believe nothing happened. Teams of de Rooij and Stacey/Versluis have got good material.

[Mirek]

What happened and Kamaz are not on pace?
http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2016/fr/e...ons.html#ancre

Last year they had quite a slow start too. Wait for the second half of the rally to judge. Anyway it looks good for the competition especially since the teams of Iveco and Man are very strong this year. Sadly Kolomý seems to be again alone in the battle and that makes it twice more difficult (Valtr was for some reason very slow today) .

[dimviii]

[Oppositelock]

The "Since they've mastered four-wheel-drive, we have chosen to focus on optimising two-wheel-drive" Famin words are chrystal clear and there's no possible misinterpretation on how the 2wd option come as an alternative solution in order to face limited time and human resources on Peugeot '15 Dakar project.

But you're probably right in one point: none of the billion funded motorsport failed programes have failed by purpose...

This is another Famin quote: "The Dakar organizers have two ways of balancing performance: the regulations and the route".

Let's have a look at the regulations: The minimum weight - without fuel - for the Peugeots is nearly 700 kgs less than the turbodiesel Minis, 600 kgs less than the petrol normally aspirated Toyotas (notice the difference between these two 4WD cars). They have nearly double the wheel travel (limited to 250 mm on 4WD cars) and much bigger wheels (37 inch diameter for the Pugs). Plus they can alter the wheel pressure in full flight, which is not allowed for 4WD cars.

That leads to 2WD cars being superior offroad, especially in the desert, 4WD cars having advantages on tracks, especially with lots of corners.

Now have a look at the route: In Africa roughly 90 per cent of the stages were offroad/desert. In South American Dakar this was reduced to something like 40 per cent. Alss the organisers changed the rules in favour of 2WD cars, mainly because this formerly was a privateer category.

Peugeot is the first factory team seriously trying to win with a 2WD buggy.

Even X-Raid is evaluating the 2WD concept. Since last year they are running a buggy (Guerlain Chicherit, no. 324) alongside their Minis. It's powered by a Chevrolet V8 petrol engine and this year for the first time built around a X-Raid developped chassis.

Because Chile and Peru pulled out unfortunately - for Peugeot - the 2016 route has only something like two days of offroad driving.

After Rally Morocco Nasser Al-Attiyah was quite convinced to beat even the all-new Pugs because there they were not much faster in the desert than the Minis, and the Minis were still faster on tracks.

So it's quite interesting that at the Dakar 2016 already one stage with theoretically 4WD advantages was cancelled and the other was won by a Pug.

[Mirek]

Quite a lot of crews got penalties for speeding - Vasilyev, Al Attiyah, Despres, Prokop and others 1 minute, Al Rahji even 5 minutes. In bikes Faria, Svitko (1 min), Jakeš (2 min). No penalties in trucks.

Czech media report that the fire of Van de Brink's Renault was caused by an accident. They also wrote that the reason for very bad time of second official Tatra truck (Valtr) was caused by a problem with front differential and a puncture.

Heavy rainstorm is reported somewhere around 100th km of today's special.