Rapt attention

Ford hopes to score its first Dakar Rally victory with M-Sport's Raptor monster truck. ROB GILL locks in and pummels Greystoke Forest

- ROB GILL

Some opportunities don’t come along that often - and aren't the sort of thing you say no to. Such as the chance to drive a £2 million Dakar Rally challenger in a private forest. How exclusive was this opportunity? Well, at the time I climbed behind the wheel, only three people outside of rally outfit M-Sport had been trusted with this toughest of all ‘Built Tough’ Ford trucks: F1 star Carlos Sainz (whose rally legend namesake dad is a current Ford Performance driver), some other bloke and me. And no, I didn’t bend it - thank God.

My test in the Ford Raptor T1+ actually took place in the summer, but the time to write about it is now, because the Dakar Rally is January motorsport. And with the event starting this Sunday (4 January), it’s time to get excited.

The Dakar no longer starts in Paris or goes anywhere near Senegal. It’s currently staged entirely within Saudi Arabia. But it’s still an epic unlike any other challenge in motorsport. This year’s event consists of 13 marathon speed tests crossing a huge variety of desert surfaces including sand dunes the size of tower blocks.