Stéphane Peterhansel: "We'll be way down the ranking"

January 1 ^st 2026 - 18:19 [GMT + 3]

It would be quite the understatement to say that Stéphane Peterhansel, going into his 36th Dakar since 1988 after a one-year hiatus, generated a lot of buzz at scrutineering! "Monsieur Dakar", combining sand hues with the solid colours representing Defender, brought his D7X-R adjusted to the specs of the Stock class, reserved for slightly modified production vehicles, of which at least 1,000 units must be produced within 12 months to serve as the basis for the race vehicle. The Defender Octa model, powered by a 4.4L V8 biturbo engine, fits the bill. Weighing in at 2,550 kg, on par with the Toyota Land Cruiser 300GR fielded by the competition over at Auto Body, the Defender has a limited air inlet that restricts it to 390 hp. It compares favourably to the Dacia Sandrider and its 360 hp, although the Ultimate car is half a tonne lighter at 2,010 kg. Although a speed limit of 170 km/h applies to both classes, "Peter" knows he will not be locking horns with his long-standing opponents this time round.

"We're 500 kg heavier but have the same power, which means we have a worse weight-to-power ratio. But the main difference comes from the car design: a production chassis with the engine at its original location and a virtually unmodified suspension versus [prototypes] with adjusted centres of gravity, revamped suspensions designed specifically for competition, bigger wheels and larger brakes. What's really going to keep us down isn't the engine or the weight, but the design of a standard vehicle. Besides, prototypes can take an unbelievable amount of punishment. You can blast over holes and grooves that would mess up the driver's back and the car will just take it on the chin. Our slightly modified production car is much more brittle, so we need to take it easier and avoid pushing it too hard. These are the main two reasons we'll be far from the prototypes. Another major change is that, back then [when Peterhansel won the Production class in 2001], there used to be fifteen prototypes and no SSVs, and the production cars were right behind the prototypes. Nowadays, we've got twenty-four prototypes and sixty lightning-fast SSVs, so we'll be way down the ranking due to the sheer numbers of new generations of cars."