https://www.prodrive.

com/motorsport-motorsportseries-dakar/

https://www.prodrive.com/prodrive-heads-for-dakar/

5 February 2020

BAHRAIN AND PRODRIVE JOINS FORCES TO ENTER OWN TEAM IN THE 2021 DAKAR RALLY
Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat), the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of
Bahrain, today announced the establishment of a new joint venture with Prodrive, the British
motorsport and engineering group.

The new company, Prodrive International, builds on Prodrive’s extensive experience in developing
championship winning race and rally cars, and has been established with the aim of designing and
manufacturing cars to compete in the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia from 2021.

The new Prodrive International car, specifically developed for the Dakar Rally, will compete in the top
level T1 class. Two rally cars will be manufactured and operated annually by Prodrive International
who will also produce other customer cars and offer a range of performance parts and body kits as
accessories for clients.

Bahrain sponsored the winning car in this year’s inaugural Dakar Rally in the Middle East, which
opened in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and concluded in the country’s capital, Riyadh. With the
establishment of Prodrive International, Bahrain will compete in 2021 with its own team.
Commenting on the partnership, HE Khalid Al Rumaihi, Mumtalakat CEO, said, ‘Prodrive has
participated in numerous regional and international motorsports events throughout its 30+ years of
operation, winning six FIA World Rally Championships, five Le Mans titles and seven Middle East Rally
Championships. We’re very proud of the Rally’s move to the region and in partnering with Prodrive,
we expand Bahrain’s significant motorsport heritage, having established the Bahrain International
Circuit to host Formula One in the Middle East for the first time in 2004.’

David Richards CBE, Founder & Chairman of Prodrive added, ‘It has been a long-held ambition of mine
and Prodrive to compete in the Dakar Rally. To be able to do so with the Kingdom of Bahrain’s
sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, and in Saudi Arabia, makes the prospect even more special as
the Middle East is where Prodrive started its motorsport journey in 1984. Dakar is a new and
challenging project for Prodrive, but one that I and the whole team in Banbury are relishing.’

Jonny Bourne OBE, Prodrive International’s interim CEO, explained, ‘As well as aiming to be
competitive and innovative at the Dakar Rally in its fabulous new Middle Eastern setting, this joint
venture also presents the opportunity to introduce to the Kingdom of Bahrain further high technology
industries, which create employment, enhance local expertise and raise the profile of Bahrain as a
centre of technological excellence in the Arabian Gulf.’

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motorsport/revealed-prodrive-details-new-brx-dakar-rally-
roader

British motorsport and technology company Prodrive has unveiled plans for a
groundbreaking, three-car, 250-person Dakar desert race team, backed by
Mumtalakat, Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, and called BRX, for Bahrain Rally
Xtreme.

The team will challenge for outright honours in the 4400-mile Dakar Rally in January
next year, using an all-new car designed at Prodrive and specifically intended for a
global programme of off-road events, starting with the Dakar. Called the BRX T1, it
may in future be developed as a road car for private sale – a so-called “Ferrari of the
desert” – or for other uses.

The multimillion-pound BRX project, backed by the Bahraini government and led by
Prodrive founder and chairman David Richards as team director, will use an all-new
Ian Callum body design. It’s currently under construction inside the company’s
headquarters in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Although Prodrive will continue to build Aston
Martin racing cars for the foreseeable future, the Dakar project is likely to become its
headline business over the next four years.

The Dakar entry is a surprisingly sleek-looking, raised two-door coupé based on a

tough and complex steel spaceframe, clad in a carbonfibre-and-composite body and
painted in what Prodrive describes as Bahraini Racing Red. It stretches 4.5 metres
(about the length of a Ford Focus) and rides on 15in wheels and huge tyres protruding
from even more massive wheel arches. Its body is designed for a better aerodynamic
performance than most rivals, although it does feature an air scoop on its roof, which
is obligatory for most off-road competition cars.

Overhangs are short, so the T1 has a relatively long wheelbase of 2.9 metres, with a
height of 1.8 metres. It uses a ‘crate’ engine: a modified version of Ford’s ubiquitous
twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre petrol V6, mounted well back in the nose, almost between
the two occupants. The north-south unit sends its drive via a short torque tube to a six-
speed sequential gearbox, before a centre differential splits it between the front and
rear wheels. Power is regulated at 400bhp, which Prodrive engineers say is easy for
this engine; in other applications, it has made twice that.

The unladen weight of the T1 is 1850kg, but it’s more likely to weigh around 2500kg
on the start line, because it carries 40kg worth of spare wheels, plus a 500-litre fuel
tank mounted as low as possible behind the occupants. This is needed to cope with the
gruelling distances of the Dakar, more than 3000 miles of which involve flat-out
racing.

The suspension is by double wishbones at either end (with twin adjustable dampers on
each wheel), the brakes are six-pot discs both front and rear and the steering is
hydraulically power-assisted.

The body shape has already been extensively tested to refine its aerodynamics, on
both the top and bottom surfaces of the body, but recent regulation changes have
limited cars’ top speed to 170kph (106mph), which gives Prodrive the chance to build
in still more downforce – hopefully a further advantage over entrants whose cars’
shapes are production-based.

This project is Richards’ own brainchild, hatched during talks he promoted 18 months
ago about the direction of motorsport.

“Prodrive has been successful at running championship campaigns over the years,” he
says. “Subaru’s rally programme and Aston Martin Racing were two. But we
concentrated on what should come next. To us, motorsport is about entertainment and
technical leadership. The trouble is, current regulations in many categories have
moved the cars close together, which means they’re all much the same, which slows
technology – and that doesn’t suit a business like ours.

“We started assessing new opportunities and the Dakar stood out because it’s
prominent on the world stage, given the arrival of people like Fernando Alonso.
During last year’s F1 Bahrain Grand Prix, I got talking to the authorities there,
encountered plenty of enthusiasm for backing the idea, and by last October we’d done
a four-year deal. And we’ve been working flat out ever since.”

Prodrive has brought out its biggest guns for the BRX project. Beside Richards as
project director sits team principal Paul Howarth, who had the same role for the
Subaru and Aston Martin teams; the hugely experienced David Lapworth as technical
director; and chief designer Paul Doe, who previously worked on BMW’s M cars.
Ex-Jaguar design director Callum created the car’s shape and will lead any road car
project, while Richard Thompson (hugely experienced in Dakar competition) and
Alan McGuinness (30 years at Prodrive) are chief race engineer and head of
operations respectively.

According to Richards, the current Dakar regulations make this the right time to build
“the ultimate car”, although Prodrive reaching that goal involves much research to
discover exactly what the best is.

The rules allow cars to vary in look and layout. They can have either two- or four-
wheel drive and can be powered by a turbo diesel, turbo petrol or normally aspirated
petrol engine. Size, materials and the use of active systems are governed, but the rules
are still surprisingly free.

Weight is another important factor: a four-wheel-drive machine must weigh at least

1850kg and is limited on tyre size and wheel travel, whereas a two-wheel-drive design
can be 200kg lighter and the tyres and suspension travel are free.

Richards exclusively showed Autocar part of Prodrive’s research, based on Dakar

conditions, that led to adoption of the turbo-petrol-and-4WD configuration, which
was an eye-opener. Talking engines, the three types were equal on performance, but
the chosen twin-turbo petrol V6 won the day on low weight, compactness and,
interestingly, relevance. For wider car manufacturing, downsized petrol engines are
the way to go.

Prodrive’s people also reckoned the Ford-derived engine (which gets a dry sump, new
electronics and a redesign of the timing chest to protect its moving parts from mud
and stones) had a built-in advantage from its turbochargers, which allowed it to be
tuned more accurately to follow an idealised power curve provided by the FIA.

This is more difficult with a normally aspirated engine.

What about the decision on drive type? You might have thought this was a no-brainer,
because maximum traction is needed in sand. Not so fast, though. Prodrive’s research
showed that 2WD is marginally better in dunes and much better at acceleration and
coping with really rough roads (that’s the unlimited suspension travel at work), but
4WD won the day on mountain roads and has really big advantages on traction and
drivability. And when you’re racing flat out for 3000 miles over more than a week,
that’s probably what counts.

Prodrive’s design was close to first testing when the pandemic intervened but, after
the loss of about six weeks (made up by concentrating the test programmes), all is
back on track. Testing will now begin in September, about the time the first of the six
drivers will be announced. First tests will be in the UK, then France and then
Morocco before the car’s debut competitive drive, in the Rallye du Maroc in early
October.

Then it’s the big one, the Dakar, the route for which has just been announced. While
testing the car, Prodrive is configuring its team: nearly 50 people will travel as part of
the three-car squad, supported by another 200 at home. Organising all that is a
mammoth task on its own.

Shackled by the lockdown, chief designer Doe grows more impatient by the day. He’s
well aware of his car’s advantages (a new design aided by careful observation of
others’ mistakes and drawbacks, sophisticated aerodynamics and speed) but knows
the others have “a massive head start” on durability. “We have plenty to learn,” he
says. “In this form of racing, you’re not at the performance limit all the time. You’ve
got to conserve the car and the tyres. I’d say it was one-third challenge, two-thirds
good judgement.”

Looking out over it all is Richards, who knows that to succeed, the team must
entertain. That means coverage and access by an audience. Working with CSM, one
of the world’s largest sports marketing operations, he plans to make that happen.

If it all comes off, in the depths of winter next January, when the frost is hard on the
ground and driving isn’t much fun around here, we’ll have a whole new British
motorsport effort to watch and enjoy.

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/06/16/prodrive-brx-dakar-rally-car/#slide-2242184

Ian Callum-designed BRX T1 could also become a 'Ferrari of the desert' road car

If you had nearly unlimited dosh to assemble a dream team to win the 2021 Dakar
Rally, you'd have a hard time doing better than the crew behind the BRX T1. The
abyssal well of finance comes from Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, Bahrain
Mumtalakat Holding Company, otherwise known as Mumtalakat and the majority
owner of the McLaren Group. The fund is paying for an effort led by Dave Richards
of Prodrive, the English engineering and motorsports firm that's won rally, GT, and
endurance racing for 36 years now — a stint that began after Richards hung up his
helmet as a World Rally Championship-winning co-driver. The vehicle that's already
begun testing is known as the Bahrain Raid Xtreme, or BRX, with three of them
planned to enter next year's premier T1 class for the overall Dakar win. Ian Callum's
new design and consulting firm scored the job of finishing the BRX's bodywork, and
will design a potential roadgoing version. And global sports marketing agency CSM
will work to make sure the world keeps up with what's happening with the BRX for
the next four years.

As told by Autocar, the loose Dakar rules compelled Prodrive's interest in the Dakar,
the regulations permitting three engine types, two drivetrains, and flexibility with
bodywork. Richards could be expected to field a strong challenger anywhere he
chooses to race, but with the BRX T1 representing the Bahraini crown and His Royal
Highness Prince Salman, Richards' is trying to develop "the ultimate rally car." 

The BRX's tubular steel chassis cradles a Ford-sourced 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 front
midship, tuned to 400 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. The motor's been
revised with a dry-sump oil system, beefed-up protection around its timing chest, and
new electronics. Even though two-wheel-drive entries have triumphed in four of the
last five Dakar rallies, partially due to exceptions like unlimited suspension travel on
2WD vehicles, Richards opted for four-wheel drive for the traction, driveability, and
superiority in mountainous terrain. Hence, a six-speed sequential transmission sends
power to both axles through three differentials. Two adjustable dampers per wheel
manage a double wishbone suspension at every corner. About the length of a Ford
Focus, standing on tall rubber wrapped around 16-inch wheels, the BRX weighs 4,079
pounds dry, about 760 pounds more than a 2020 Focus ST.

The engine's been serving time on the Prodrive dyno, and the workshop is building
the first chassis to be ready for testing in September. Until then, engineers continue
refining the bodywork — drenched in Bahraini Racing Red — "to refine its
aerodynamics, on both the top and bottom surfaces" so the BRX can make the most of
the Dakar's mandated 106-mph top speed. 

There will be an initial test in the Rallye du Maroc in October of this year, followed
by the marquee trial in Saudi Arabia. Next year's Dakar starts in Jeddah on January 3,
spending 12 days traversing 4,400 miles to end in Jeddah, 3,000 of those miles said to
be flat-out running.

So what's this about four years and a road car? The timespan is how long Mumtalakat
is underwriting the project as a means of promoting Bahrain and tourism. If the BRX
does well and customer interest materializes, Prodrive says it's ready to build cars for
privateers, and a road-legal version with body panels finessed by Ian Callum that
would be the "Ferrari of the desert."