Dacia also appears to build fine rally cars

February 28, 2025

Rallymonster

With the Duster 4×4, Dacia has a decent offroader in the house, but for the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), you need to arrive with some tougher tools. That’s why Dacia, in cooperation with parent company Renault Group and British Prodrive, has developed the Sandrider. This beast has a tubular frame, lightweight carbon fiber bodywork and a 3.0-liter V6 twin-turbo engine that delivers 265 kW (360 hp) and a solid 539 Nm of torque. All power goes to all four wheels via a six-speed sequential transmission. In other words, no home-grown Dacia.

W2RC

The Sandrider is proving to be a very capable rally car. The duo of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Édouard Boulanger took their second win at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Their first win already came on debut at the Rallye du Maroc in 2024. For Al-Attiyah, it was his fifth victory in Abu Dhabi, while Boulanger celebrated his third win.

With these performances, Al-Attiyah now tops the W2RC standings among drivers and Boulanger leads among navigators. Dacia is thus suddenly second in the brand rankings and seriously interferes in the battle for the world title.