“I want to give myself a big gift”
En resumen
- Owner of La Sportiva, a leading firm producing boots and shoes for mountain adventures, Lorenzo Delladio is no stranger to the great outdoors. His desert is usually plain white, as he explores the summits of Trentino.
- Delladio has also been a gentleman rally driver for some forty years. He usually drives a Porsche 911 Carrera RS and he won the Rally San Martino di Castrozza in 2016.
- As he turned 70 years old last May, the president of Confindustria Trento decided to take his rally adventures a step further and geared up for the Dakar Classic.
- Along with his navigator Guido Guerrini, he will face the Saudi desert aboard a very special car. His Porsche 959 Dakar EVO is based on a 964 Carrera that has been rebuilt “like a true original 959” with three years of study and work. Only five of them are produced, and two line up in the Dakar Classic 2026, reviving the triumph of René Metge and Jacky Ickx in 1986.
- Fresh off his triumph as a world champion in the 2025 FIA ecoRally Cup, Guido Guerrini puts his experience at the service of Lorenzo Delladio to face the challenges of the Dakar Classic.
- Guerrini’s recent success backed up previous titles from 2016, already as a driver, and 2017, as a co-driver. With some 15 years of racing behind him, he’s experienced many situations… But he’s never taken on the desert in a competitive fashion.
- Still, the San Marino navigator knows the kind of challenges that await him in Saudi Arabia as he already crossed deserts and steppes during intercontinental trips with different vehicles.
- This time, he’s jumping aboard an alluring Porsche 959 Dakar EVO that revives the triumph of René Metge and Jacky Ickx in 1986
Ambición
L.D.: “Dakar is a gift to myself for my 70th birthday. After so many years of rallying, I said to myself, I want to try it, I want to give myself a big gift, and I went for the Dakar Classic, to experience the differences between asphalt and desert and see how I'll do there, what this experience will be like. I've never done desert, dunes, nothing. Offroad is completely new to me.
We did some tests in Morocco and I realised I also need to train physically, so I've been working with a trainer. The biggest race I've done is the Rally di Sanremo, and those were specials of 20, 25 minutes, no more. But here we're talking hours and hours, lots of kilometres. Obviously, you don't go as fast, but you need endurance.
I usually drive my own Porsche 911 and I wanted to stay with Porsche. We ended up doing this very ambitious project, with this 959 Evo. It's basically an evolution of the one Jacky Ickx used in '86, with double shock absorbers. We worked with specific measurements given to us by Porsche. They are almost semi-official cars, we can say, from Stuttgart, even though they are made here in Italy, but with the specifications and measurements from Porsche Germany.”
G.G.: “Dakar to me is both a great journey and a great race. I do regularity races, so taking it to the desert in this extreme situation is a very interesting challenge for me, as I have always done these races on asphalt, dirt, snow and ice. And trying the desert is also a new experience for racing, although this is an environment I know. I have been involved in intercontinental road trips and have travelled the Italy-China route many times in vehicles with different fuel types. I have crossed the Gobi Desert, the Taklimakan Desert and the Hunger Steppe several times. So let's say I understand the difficulties.
When Lorenzo had the idea of participating in the Dakar Classic, he spoke to more than one person and thought that my sporting profile was right for what he wanted to do. I accepted enthusiastically and I've been working for over a year and a half to get ready. We got to know each other with Lorenzo, we learned to understand each other's needs. I think we'll get along well and can even try to get a good result.
I want to have a good race. I want the regularity aspect, which depends mainly on me and the instructions I give to my driver, such as navigation, to work perfectly. Then, if our result is not good because we are unlucky, because we break something in the car, that's fine, I will accept that. But I want the sporting side to go as well as possible. We're not here on holiday, we're here to race.”
