Lords of the rings

Dakar 2025 | Stage 6 | HAIL > AL DUWADIMI
January 10 ^th 2025 - 21:15 [GMT + 3]

Each year, one car becomes the darling of the Dakar Classic. Following the authentic Sunhill buggy that won the first edition, the replica of Vatanen’s Peugeot 205 T16 in 2023 and the René Metge Porsche 959 replica last year, this time it is the turn of the replica of the Audi Quattro Rally S1 that took part in the Dakar in 1985 to hog the limelight. Quite aptly, like the brand’s number of rings, there is not just one of them but four! The future meets the past with 450 horsepower under the bonnet.

Everybody has heard of the Audi Quattro. It is a legendary rally car that gave its name to technology that has stood the test of time to become part of the four-ring brand’s DNA. In the 1980s, in the Group B category, it was queen of the rally. Audi won two world championship titles (1980 and 1984) with the first 4-wheel drive vehicle in the history of the discipline. A French importer wanted to follow up this revolution on the Paris-Alger-Dakar race in 1985 by entering three specially adapted models. The start of its story was striking, thanks to Darniche winning the prologue behind its wheel. However, none of them reached the end of the rally. That year, Michèle Mouton pulverised the Pikes Peak record in the USA with a 600 hp version that weighed less than one tonne! The following year, group B cars were forbidden, marking the end of an era. But let’s get back to the topic in hand…

On the Dakar Classic, the four Dutch competitors have been preparing their project for three years. The ‘Dutch Quattro Legend’ team and two of their drivers are former major players in the Dakar, one in the car category and the other in the truck race. Erik van Loon, who competed between 2009 and 2017, is still the best performing Dutchman in the car race, with a 4th place achieved behind the wheel of an official Mini in 2015. Hans Stacey can boast 11 participations in the Dakar, with 3 podium finishes in the truck category, including his triumph in 2007. On this 5th edition, the Audis are the only vehicles enrolled in H4, which has the highest average speed to be observed and is the class in which it is therefore the most difficult to respect the set times. However, the two former drivers and their friends Peter van den Bosch, a former truck competitor, and Frits van Eerd have come along with a completely different objective: to unite their 4 rings in the Dakar cauldron... on a quest for pleasure that begins with delighting the eyes.

Stacey gruffly admitted that consistency is not his cup of tea: “If you want to compare the Dakar rallies in which I drove in a truck and the Dakar Classic, it’s like the difference between playing football and golf. In the Dakar Classic, you spend more time looking at the consistency tools on the dashboard than on the tracks”. However, Erik interjected to say, “Stacey is having a hard time getting used to it, but when he has to make up time lost, shifts the gears and reaches 150 kmph, he has a smile on his face”. Erik is the one in the gang who has made the smoothest adjustment to the rules of the Classic: “You have to take it seriously, because if you don’t play the game, you mess the race up for the others with the dust you kick up. I’ve opened the way since the beginning, except for yesterday when I got a puncture. To make up for the time lost, I went full throttle for half an hour, at the same speed as the guys in the 1980s, perhaps even faster, because our suspension and brakes are much better than the ones they had. If they had our cars in 1985, they could’ve won”.

All the stars of the Dakar have come to admire the Quattro at the bivouac, from Carlos Sainz to Nasser Al Attiyah, including Sébastien Loeb. Forty years ago, this legendary car failed in its attempt to conquer the Dakar. For Erik van Loon, who opened the page of the modern machines in the queen category by becoming the first driver to test a Hilux T1+ on the Rallye du Maroc in 2021 before it was launched on the Dakar the following year and tasted success thanks to Nasser Al Attiyah, it is a fine way of combining the future and the past of 40 years ago, but with a little bonus in relation to the T1+ cars: “We have the most powerful car in the bivouac. It has 450 horsepower, which is more than is authorised by the T1+ rules. It’s also more than what we need on the Dakar Classic, but how can you resist it?”

Their participation in the Dakar Classic is occurring one year after the four-ring brand triumphed with Carlos Sainz behind the wheel of a car with the most advanced technology in the history of the race. This year, it is the Dutch Quattro Legend team who are the lords of the rings!