The new BRX (Bahrain Raid Xtreme) is ready for the 2022 Dakar Rally. BRX surprised the world by unveiling a Prodrive-developed, Ian Callum-designed racer for the 2021 edition of the Dakar Rally earlier known as the “Hunter”. It struggled a bit during the race due to a variety of technical problems. But it returned with a vengeance to compete in the 2022 Dakar Rally with complete new tech and design.
Prodrive gave few updates from the previous model. The new Hunter gets 37-inch tires wrapped around with 17-inch wheels to compare to the older 32-inch tires and 16-inch wheels. And it gets more suspension travel and a wider track. The suspension system’s geometry has been reconfigured, while bigger brakes are mounted behind the upsized wheels. There’s also a larger windshield and a programmable motor for the wipers.
Getting a flat tire is a common mishap in the Dakar Rally, so the Hunter’s onboard jacks were made lighter, stronger, and faster to help pilots get back on the road as quickly as possible. They can also be powered using an electric pump. Power still comes from a Ford-designed, 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 twin-turbocharged to about 400 horsepower.
Ian Callum, who ran Jaguar’s design department until he retired in 2019, made subtle design tweaks to the new Hunter. He notably gave the front end a new look with four lights instead of two and drew wider body panels to accommodate the new chassis setup. The first and second Hunters are shown side-by-side in the gallery above.
Prodrive is currently building the first example of the updated Hunter at its headquarters in the United Kingdom, and testing is scheduled to begin in September 2021.
Other fact is the Hunter could spawn a street-legal model that Prodrive previously described as a “Ferrari of the desert.” It will be closely related to the Dakar-bound off-roader but it will receive a full interior and a 500-horsepower evolution of the twin-turbocharged, 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engine sourced from the Ford parts bin.
Source: Autoblog
