\n<\/p>\n
In 1979 many great things happened; not only was I born but also the inaugural Paris-Dakar was won by a V8 Range Rover Classic<\/a>. No one remembers it as early Dakar races were really about the bikes, but true desert racing was born when a French man piloted one of Solihull\u2019s finest luxury wagons across the 10,000km from France ro Senegal.<\/p>\n So flash forward to 2025 and I have decided to build my first race car, a homage to the original Dakar winner.\u00a0 <\/span>Roger the Range Rover Rally Car is currently coming alive under the banner of Guincho Racing<\/a> a newly formed Rally race team of which I am lucky enough to be one of the drivers. The concept of Guincho Racing<\/a> is simple, can a pair of complete amateurs take part in a professional long distance Rally Raid competition and not totally embarrass ourselves. Simple.<\/p>\n We have joined a race called \u201cAFRICA ECO RACE\u201d and will be taking part in this epic adventure in January 2026, but first \u2013 We needed a race car. The Range Rover V8 was a luxury motor in its day but with genuine off road and racing pedigree it seemed like an amazing base model to build our car from. We started by stripping it back, removing its interior and cutting out anything that we felt was unnecessary. Electric mirrors, clock, stereo, cup holders, Air conditioning, heating, switch panels, carpets, rear seats, central console, auxiliary wiring, door cards, headliners all came out to give us an almost bare frame to work with.<\/p>\n