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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 300bhp and 420lb ft 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?
Video: Subaru Forester hits Dakar
Scooby’s SUV gets ready to take on the world’s most brutal rally race
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Mick--s12 commented on this article
at 06:04 pm on 18 November 2009
I think it will be a really good Dakar car. Well afterall it does come from a long line of rally cars!
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Robert4 commented on this article
at 06:14 pm on 18 November 2009
it will be a good dakar car. its big and jumps over hills. i dont really care what make is it as long as it does the job
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DaViega commented on this article
at 06:28 pm on 18 November 2009
Atleast it has stock (appearing) rear lights and same logo on fron as stock Forester :D Subaru not good at all? wh-wh-what?
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James67 commented on this article
at 06:36 pm on 18 November 2009
It looks good but it's not as cool as the bowler wildcat.
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lukeage9 commented on this article
at 07:16 pm on 18 November 2009
Definetly not Bowler Wildcat, although this is a handsome-looking brute.
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