Dakar 2014

[Grant_RSA]

Very little has been said about the 2nd Toyota from SA,

Leeroy Poulter is extremely fast, probably faster than Giniel de Villiers, but hasnt got anywhere near the experience of such a long event, if everything holds together you may just see a surprise up front.

Im not convinced Al Atiyah joining Mini this year is a good idea, its going to be a similar issue to the Alonso/Raikonen problem at Ferrari, i dont see him or Peterhansel taking a step back, which may be their downfall at the end of the day.

[drive]

found some pictures from the port Le Havre where cars/truks etc were loaded to the ship:

http://buzzybeeforum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=376&t=44689

Would be great event! strong starting list, loads of good stuff coming to Dakar!

[trifonvl]

Thanks man, great photos!!!

[makinen_fan]

nice photos! love these trucks

[Co-driven]

Team Mitsubishi Brasil with two ASX this time. One for regular driver Guilherme Spinelli, the second one for Reinaldo Varela, 2012 World Cross Country Rally Champion in T2 class.
Although it's Varela's first Dakar in a top car (he did a few of the last editions with T2 cars, UTV and in beginning of 2000's in Africa with T2 car), my guess is that he will do better than Spinelli. Id even say that we'll see some top 5 times from him, specially on the stages without dunes.

[Mirek]

nice photos! love these trucks

Me to As a Czech I have to because it's the only category where we are strong (since Machá?ek is not running a quad anymore)

[karim007]

Really looking forward to the event, first time visit for me!

[drive]

any one overhere with real knowledge to share their thoughts on possible top10? cars/truks/bikes... lets start this game!! oops, sorry, is this called pickems over here? I'm new to this forum

[Mirek]

any one overhere with real knowledge to share their thoughts on possible top10? cars/truks/bikes... lets start this game!! oops, sorry, is this called pickems over here? I'm new to this forum

About trucks...

Probably the biggest favorite is Gerard De Rooy if his Iveco truck is reliable. Kamaz is always strong but after the end of career of Chagin and Kabirov they lost the top drivers. Still Eduard Nikolaev won last year and the others like Mardeev or Karginov are catching up. From photos it is clear they have some new trucks too. Hans Stacey with another Iveco will be fast sure as well. From the number of Tatras the fastest will be probably Aleš Loprais but he is quite brutal driver and rarely finishes without problems, also his new truck suffered from plenty of problems in Silk Way rally. Martin Kolomý who finished fifth last year changed team for newly created Tatra-Buggyra factory one. The truck shall be fast but it was finished too late for some extensive testing so the reliability is a question. In the Tatra Bonver team the new big name is Artur Ardavicius who runs another newly built truck about which nobody knows how fast it is. With Man and Ginaf I don't know that much about them. They will be probably close to the top too.

[MartijnS]

Yes, Versluis with the MAN has speed for top 5, but probably wont be faultless troughout the rally.
Marcel van Vliet also has top 10 speed. If Wuf van Ginkel keeps his Ginaf in 1 piece he normally should also be around the top 10.

Cars will be a big Mini fight I think. Hope Sainz will be close and wondering what kind of Hummer Gordon is driving.