Ford Ranger to enter Dakar rally in multi-year assault on world’s toughest off-road race

The Ford Ranger ute is poised to embark on a multi-year campaign in Dakar – the world’s toughest off-road race – from 2024, however the US car giant has cautioned the first year will be a learning exercise before building a new truck to shoot for outright victory in 2025 and beyond.

While the Ford Ranger Raptor that won its class in last year’s Baja 1000 and last weekend’s Finke Desert Race was a showroom-based vehicle – with additional underbody protection, a roll cage, racing seats and an even tougher wheel and tyre combination – the Ford Ranger tackling Dakar will bare little resemblance to the production vehicle beyond some styling cues and a Ford engine.

“This is a finish and learn effort,” said Mark Rushbrook, the global head of Ford Performance motorsport programs. “We need to understand the size of the task and (treating the first event as a learning exercise) is the best way to do it.”

Mr Rushbrook said Ford will campaign an existing vehicle in the 2024 Dakar event and start working on ground-up redesign of a race vehicle for its 2025 assault.

“It’s a long term commitment,” said Mr Rushbrook. “We will start on the design of an all-new truck in early 2024 for subsequent years. We plan to continue in the foreseeable future in what should be a ‘competing to win effort’ from 2025 and beyond. We know it’s a tall order to take on, but that’s why we go racing.”

While the Ford Ranger in the Dakar will effectively be a specially-built racing frame cloaked in a lightweight body with a Ford Ranger grille, headlights and tail-lights, the engine must come from the Ford family.

The 2024 Ford Ranger in the Dakar will be powered by a highly modified version of the company’s twin-turbo 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine.

The rules in the outright racing category in Dakar stipulate the engine must be in production and from “within the Ford eco-system.” When asked what engine would power the 2025 Dakar Ford Ranger, Mr Rushbrook said it is yet to be determined.

Some drivers have already been locked in, but the company is yet to announce the driver and co-driver pairings for the 2024 event.

When asked why Ford chose to embark on such an exhaustive motorsport program – given the race car is not the same as the showroom version of the Ford Ranger – Mr Rushbrook said there is still an opportunity for its engineers to expand their knowhow on suspension, engine diagnostics, airflow and cooling in the harshest conditions in the motor racing world.

Other benefits included “employee pride and customer pride,” he said.

The Ford Ranger Dakar campaign will be jointly run by two long-term Ford motorsport outfits: M-Sport in the UK and NWM in South Africa.

Ford’s top motorsport executive said while there could be “shake-down” off-road competition leading up to future Dakar events, he stopped short of including the Australian Finke Desert Race as an option.

The Dakar Rally initially ran from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal (in West Africa) for all but three years from 1979 to 2007.

The 2008 event was cancelled one day before the start amid concerns for the safety of participants after four French tourists were killed in Mauritania in North-West Africa, previously part of the route.

After that, the event changed its name to Dakar – even though it was held in South America from 2009 to 2019 and in Saudi Arabia from 2020 to the present day. The next Dakar Rally is scheduled for 5 to 19 January, 2024.

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