Photo: SsangYong
On Sunday, January 6, 2019 the 2019 Dakar rally will kick off in Lima, Peru. For eleven days and 5,000 km (3,100 miles), 70 percent of them on sand, machines of all shapes and sizes manned by daredevils will compete to reach their destination the fastest.
Among these machines will be a very special version of the SsangYong Rexton, one the South Korean manufacturers like to call DKR. That’s short for Dakar, obviously.
The car was designed and assembled in Spain and it uses a dune buggy body style with influences taken from the SUV sold in Europe and elsewhere. The car has a kerb weight of under 1,900 kg as it is mounted on a multi-tubular chassis made from chrome-molybdenum.
The DKR is a rear-wheel drive machine at the heart of which sits a V8 engine mounted in a rear-central position for even weigh distribution. The unit develops 450 hp.
Paired to a sequential-manual 6-speed transmission, the engine is capable of propelling the sand racer from a standstill to 62 mph in 4.4 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 195 km/h (122 mph). We’ll see how much good that great acceleration time does for the car in the tricky sands of Peru.
Keeping traction at optimum levels are 17 inch Yokohama Geolandar tires. Underneath them lie double arms suspension, King shock absorbers and helical extension springs. The stopping power of the monster comes from AP brakes.
For next year’s comepetition, the SsangYong Rexton DKR will be driven by Spanish driver Oscar Fuertes and Diego Vallejo. The two are the same pair that raced a SsangYong Tivoli-based race car at the last edition of the Dakar Rally.
For the next race, hopes are high as the two have managed to be the second rookie team to make it to the finish. That amounted to little, however, as they finished 32nd overall.
The car was designed and assembled in Spain and it uses a dune buggy body style with influences taken from the SUV sold in Europe and elsewhere. The car has a kerb weight of under 1,900 kg as it is mounted on a multi-tubular chassis made from chrome-molybdenum.
The DKR is a rear-wheel drive machine at the heart of which sits a V8 engine mounted in a rear-central position for even weigh distribution. The unit develops 450 hp.
Paired to a sequential-manual 6-speed transmission, the engine is capable of propelling the sand racer from a standstill to 62 mph in 4.4 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 195 km/h (122 mph). We’ll see how much good that great acceleration time does for the car in the tricky sands of Peru.
Keeping traction at optimum levels are 17 inch Yokohama Geolandar tires. Underneath them lie double arms suspension, King shock absorbers and helical extension springs. The stopping power of the monster comes from AP brakes.
For next year’s comepetition, the SsangYong Rexton DKR will be driven by Spanish driver Oscar Fuertes and Diego Vallejo. The two are the same pair that raced a SsangYong Tivoli-based race car at the last edition of the Dakar Rally.
For the next race, hopes are high as the two have managed to be the second rookie team to make it to the finish. That amounted to little, however, as they finished 32nd overall.
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