RED BULL OT3 DAKAR RACERS

Last updated May 6, 2020

Cyril Despres performs with the OT3 by Overdive in Erfoud, Morocco on October 4, 2019 // Flavien Duhamel/Red Bull Content Pool // AP-22EBTF47N2111 // Usage for editorial use only //

Can-Am completely schooled the competition in the most Recent Dakar Rally. Red Bull made news of its own in the 7500-mile torture test with the special Red Bull OT3 Dakar racers it built for the rally. The machines were a secret until just weeks before the rally. Also, the machines weren’t classified as UTVs until they were entered. Details are still fuzzy about what the machines actually are, but we did find out they were powered by Volkswagen’s 1000cc, three-cylinder turbo TSI engine.

RED BULL DAKAR RACERS — Belgium’s Overdrive Racing built the Red Bull Dakar racers for racing only. This will not become a production machine, but companies like Polaris are watching to see how this machine performs.

The car has carbon fiber and Kevlar bodywork but still weighs 1962 pounds. Dakar cars carry lots of spare parts and have a huge fuel cell (over 20 gallons) to get through the long race stages.

The OT3 has a six-speed automotive VW transmission with race car gears. The front and rear diffs are identical.

200 HORSEPOWER, AND MORE AVAILABLE

The powerplant is capable of producing 150–200 horsepower, depending on the state of tune. Because of the long race, conservative boost keeps reliability up. This mill mates to a six-speed manual transmission. So the machines can deal with Dakar’s terrain, they have four-wheel drive and A-arms on all four corners.

AMERICANS JOIN VETERAN DAKAR DRIVER

American drivers Mitch Guthrie Jr., Seth Quintero and former Textron/Speed UTV driver Blade Hildebrand joined veteran Dakar competitor Cyril Despres for the race in Saudi Arabia. Despres was a fill-in driver for Quintero who couldn’t compete in January because he was not 18 yet. Guthrie and Hildebrand both won stages but had issues, costing them an official finish. Cyril failed to finish as well. We will have more on the car and the race in next month’s issue as well as at www.utvactionmag.com.