Jay Leno shows us the mighty 2013 Mini Countryman All4 rally car which won the 2013 Dakar Rally. The presenter gets thrown around as he takes a trip over the dunes with rally driver Nani Roma before getting behind the wheel himself.
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Organized chaos ensues the video as Jay Leno drives and rides in an All4 Mini rally car. Though we do not always cover hooning or motorsport, a Mini with a BMW Motorsport-developed diesel does cause a bit of a stir.
The car in the film is perhaps Mini’s idea of the Bowler Wildcat. Gearing is set up with acceleration in mind rather than top speed, which is a pretty paltry 112 mph, less than the standard Countryman, which the race car’s shell mimics.
Nonetheless, this 3 liter-powered throwback to British rally heritage won the Paris-Dakar and was driven by a chap who had previously won it on a motorcycle.
Would you love to have a drive of this 2013 Mini Countryman All4 Rally Car on the dunes?
The Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, but due to security threats in Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, the 2009 Dakar Rally is now run in South America.
The race is open to amateur and professional entries, amateurs typically making up about eighty percent of the participants.
Despite its “rally” name, it is an off-road endurance race, properly called a “rally raid” rather than a conventional rally. The terrain that the competitors traverse is much tougher and the vehicles used are true off-road vehicles rather than the modified on-road vehicles used in rallies.
Most of the competitive special sections are off-road, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks, and erg among others. The distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800–900 kilometres (500–560 mi) per day.
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