New car news

18 November 2009 - 17:00

Video: Subaru Forester hits Dakar

It may no longer be held anywhere near Dakar, but the Dakar rally is still genuinely, genuinely mental.
 
If you’re going to take the 6000-mile assault across South America – an assault crossing some of the most brutal terrain on earth, including the Atacama desert and the Andes – you need a beast of a machine.
 
Argentinian race team Barattero Motorsport reckons it has found such a beast in the shape of the Subaru Forester.
 
Called the Subaru Elaion, it’s a heavily-modified version of Subaru’s softroader armed with a 2.0-litre boxer four putting out 223kW and 568Nm of torque.
 
Under the carbon fibre and Kevlar body is a tubular sub-frame, dual shocks with a full nine inches of suspension travel, and all the assorted spades and kit and emergency flares required to survive the mighty Dakar,
 
We reckon it’s a thoroughly awesome thing, and Barattero has kindly put together an excellent video for your perusal. Drivers Yoshiu Ikemachi and Gabriel Pozzo will kick off Subaru’s assault on the Dakar on January 1 2010 – reckon they’ll make it?