THE ANATOMY OF DAKAR RACER

The Dacia Sandrider is a £1million, Prodrive-built Rally-Raid special constructed with Dakar success in its sights.

- by SAM JENKINS PHOTOGRAPHY by ASTON PARROTT

STANDING IN THE HEAT OF THE SPANISH SUN, the idyllic sounds of nature are shattered by what sounds like an approaching A-10 Thunderbolt aeroplane firing its Gatling gun. But, thankfully, it isn't. It’s actually the sound of the antilag on a Dacia; more specifically, the company’s Dakar contender, the Sandrider.

Beyond the one-make Dacia Cup series and oddities such as the N24 Logan, ice-spec Lodgy Glace and a wide-bodied Logan designed for the Swedish Touring Car Championship, Dacia hasn't spent many of its 59 years creating motorsport contenders. The Sandrider, developed in collaboration with Prodrive, is without doubt its most significant yet.

It first broke cover in 2022 as the Dacia Manifesto concept, and you would have been forgiven for thinking it was just another show car created purely to give an indication of a brand’s future design direction. Just a few years later, however, that concept has not only inspired the bold design language of Dacia’s current road car range, it has also become a very real competition car, entered in the flagship Ultimate category of the World Rally-Raid Championship, where three examples competed throughout 2025 with Nasser Al-Attiyah, Cristina Gutiérrez and Sébastien Loeb in the driving seats.

STRONG BEGINNINGS

Not only is the Sandrider the most expensive Dacia ever built, costing around £1million per car (before accounting for the team required to run it), it’s also the firm's most successful competition car. Making its race debut at the final event of the 2024 Rally-Raid season, the five-day, 1500-mile Rallye du Maroc, it scored a 1-2 finish, Al-Attiyah and co-driver Édouard Boulanger claiming victory, Loeb and Fabian Lurquin close behind.