Road to Morocco

Dear All,

Bob Hope and Bing Crosby would have never expected to travel on these types of roads. And if they did they wouldn’t be making jokes about it.

As you can see the roads the Dakar will take don’t resemble anything that we are used to. In Morocco we will be covering about 900kms plus on road like these, in addition to desert dunes. Morocco will be our first step into the African continent for the event, so it will be very important that we don’t make any mistakes.


The dunes in the desert can be as high skyscrapers, and traversing them is an art form in itself. The first rule we learnt was to never stop in the sand, as you can see, stop and you get stuck.

Because of the roads the cars take a pounding, good suspension is vital. Having the correct suspension makes the car easier to drive and saves the crew from intense punishment.
Having the correct pace is the key; it is dictated by how the car handles over the pistes and dunes. Car has a top speed of 185 kph but it will be difficult to sustain on the rough terrain. Keeping going forward and not damaging the car is imperative.

Tyres are another factor in the Dakar equasion, we will be constantly letting the tyres down for the dunes and pumping them up for the rocks and road sections. In a day we may adjust tyre pressures five or six times. We have installed a special pressurized tank onboard that can help us pressurize the tyres quickly. We will also be watching that we don’t get too many punctures.

The engine is a BMW 6 cylinder turbo diesel, there have been trouble with the turbochargers in the past, which seems to be traced back to cars being stalled in the dunes, while the turbo continues to spin at high rpm. To counter this we have fitted a “turbo oilier” which should give the turbo longer life. In addition, dust is a factor so we had a “snorkel” fitted this reduces power slightly but saves the air filter. The snorkel sucks air from the cleaner air above the windscreen.

If we are able to bring the car to the evening bivouacs’, with as little damage as possible, it will enable the team to do a more thorough job on the whole car rather than wasting time on accident damage and repairs.

Fatigue is going to be a BIG factor on the Morocco leg, with the pounding in the car, heat, concentration, all sapping energy. Water intake, eating, and getting some sleep when possible will be an essential part of surviving the Morocco stage.