Ford has fielded SUV and trucks in off-road races since the start of the desert racing way back in the 1960s. It has competed and podiumed in the SCORE Baja 1000, NORRA Mexican 1000 and King of the Hammers to name a few. Now, the company can add a podium finish at the Dakar Rally to its list of dirt accomplishments. And it has the photos to prove it.
The Dakar Rally is the toughest motorsport event on the planet, with 12 grueling stages through the Saudi Arabian desert pushing driver, navigator and machine to the limit.
This year Ford Performance teamed up with British rally engineering team M-Sport to field four vehicles in the top T1+ class. When the dust settled, Ford had three out of four cars finish, two of them with top five accolades.
Unfortunately, Ford had to retire the car piloted by Carlos Sainz with navigation courtesy of Lucas Cruz after stage 2. The duo suffered a rollover that damaged the cage beyond repair. Here are some photos of stage 1 and 2:
Here is the car after the rollover:
So it was up to three other teams — Dakar legend Nani Roma and navigator Alex Haro, Swedish duo Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist, and Americans Mitch Guthrie and Kellon Walch — to bring home the hardware.
The T1+ Raptor isn’t quite like the F-150 Raptor we have here in the States. Yes, there is a V8 engine like in the Raptor R, but the T1+ sports a 5.0-liter naturally aspirated Coyote engine tuned to 355 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque per the Dakar rules.
You’d think the drivers would feel stymied by the governor, but Ekström has no problem with the tuning. “Otherwise it would be too dangerous,” he said. “It would be too quick.”
And besides, the teams like the noise. “Everyone in the camp says, ‘Wow, the noise is nice,” said Roma, whose run highlights are shown in the photos directly above. Coming from three years of navigating in the electric Audi RS Q e-tron, Bergkvist is also a fan of the noise. “It’s not as tiring in the V8. The Audi had electric motor noise and generator noise,” he said, so the single growly thrum of the V8 was easier to take.
Raptors built for the general public also have a 10-speed automatic, while the T1+ is outfitted with a six-speed sequential gearbox. You’ll also find a solid axle in the rear in OEM applications, but the Dakar Raptor is much more nimble with independent suspension all the way around as well as limited-slip differentials in the front, rear and center. Full-time four-wheel drive is here as well.
The T1+ Raptor is not without its creature comforts. Coming from racing in the open air cockpit of side-by-sides last year, both Guthrie and Walch (whose race is highlighted in the photos above) were grateful to have some respite from the elements during the Dakar. “A lot of people think it’s super hot here but it’s actually really cold,” said Guthrie. “It’s raining sometimes and we might have a three or four hour drive just to get back to the bivouac so being comfortable is huge.” Walch meanwhile was happy with the air conditioning system during hot afternoons and having a dust-free cabin as his office.
Most surprising, however, are the differences in the crown jewel of the customer-facing Raptor, the Fox Live Valve shocks. These high-tech dampers electronically read inputs from sensors on steering, throttle and the like to make tiny adjustments in the damping up to 500 times a seconds.
This technology isn’t allowed in the Dakar Rally, so all the tuning is done through the internal valving of bypass shocks. Each corner has one coilover shock and one bypass shock with three tubes for compression and two tubes for rebound.
This choice was not without risk for Ford and M-Sport. Most Dakar competitors run two coilover shocks on each corner so that if one breaks the car still has a coil to sit on. By swapping in a bypass, if a car lost a coilover on a stage that corner would ride on the bump stop. That’s not the way to go fast through the desert. Fortunately it never came to pass and the team gained better handling and cornering.
That’s not to say Ford didn’t have any mechanical problems. After a scary moment with an oil light and a testy GPS, Roma and Haro suffered a broken bypass shock and shattered top arm after a collision with another car. The two were able to get it rolling again thanks to Haro’s mechanical skills but they lost enough time to take them out of contention for an overall win.
However, in true sportsmanship, the Spaniards became a rolling support car for the remaining Raptors, even deliberately giving up a starting time to allow Guthrie and Walch to get ahead. The good news is that their chivalry wasn’t needed and the Spanish duo managed to win stage 10 by 18 seconds over rival Toyota Gazoo Racing.
The next day Ford garnered another stage win when Ekström and Bergkvist (shown in the photos directly above) crossed the finish line 41 seconds ahead of the Dacia factory team. However, stage wins do not make for a final podium finish. The Dakar is all about consistency and with top 10 finishes in every single stage, Ford Performance and M-Sport had a spectacular debut.
After holding the position from stage 3 on, Ekström and Bergkvist came in third overall, 20 minutes and 21 seconds out of first place. Guthrie and Walch kept a steady hold on 5th place overall after stage 6, ending up one hour, two minutes and 10 seconds out of first place. Roma and Haro ended up 31st, over 70 hours back thanks to their mechanical problems and crash.
Ford Performance plans to field the Raptor T1+ through the 2027 Dakar. However, it doesn’t seem like this is an expensive R&D experiment to benefit the OEM F-150, Ranger and Bronco Raptor. In fact, Ford folks were pretty tight-lipped about what, if anything, would trickle down to the Raptor brand, saying only that cooling and air filtration technology might find their way into the next-generation off-road trucks and SUVs..
Instead this might just be a big push for brand recognition. CEO Jim Farley recently told Automotive News that Ford wants to be the “Porsche of off-road.” [Ed Note: Shoutout to Autopian reader Anthony, who took the Ford Mustang Mach-E to SCCA rallycross podium! -DT]. A good showing at the Dakar in addition to its conquests in North America means that the Raptor label may just be on its way to world-wide domination.
All Images: Ford
Please…the Dakar Rally should have been shut down years and years ago. Remember, this is the same private French company that runs the insane, drug-fueled, whole-blood-transfusion event the Tour de France. The Dakar Rally is an insane bit of post colonialism and what makes it even worse is moving it to a nation that discriminates women, executes hundreds, tortures those imprisoned and doesn’t allow protests at all.
You would think Ford would take a hard pass, especially given the pro-Nazi views of Henry Ford.
this isnt Jalopnik bud.
I have no love for ASO, but this is an impressive description of le Tour.
Ha – I want to love these rallies but can’t get over certain choices the company makes.
Great article. Thanks.
Re your headline “Ford Took Ridiculously Badass Photos…..” Ford didn’t take the photos. A group of rediculously talented motorsports photographers took the photos. It was nice to see a few of the photos properly credited but Ford provided the money, the amazing talent of the individual photographers made the images. Proper credit please.
Isn’t “Ridiculously Badass” redundant?
I’m curious, I was under the impression that solid axles are the gold standard for off-roading – is the independent suspension here because desert racing is different, or is there some other trade off being made?
It’s the difference between going 10mph over rough terrain vs. 100mph. Baja 1000? All the fast cars have full independent suspensions.
Is there a trade off here other than money? Would taking the Baja truck on a traditional rock-crawling course be putting it outside its comfort zone?
I would imagine they’re not geared for rockcrawling, but rather for going very fast over rough terrain. Solid axles can handle a lot more torque than CV joints.
Gotcha – thanks!
I enjoy watching what coverage of the race I can actually watch here in the United States. I just don’t get how Americans don’t like this kind of racing. It’s so much more entertaining than watching left turns in an oval all day.
ya, not much other motorsport in january (imsa rolex 24 hours vs 2 weeks flat out on never seen before “roads”).
the bikes are wild, all of the competitors are gifted riders – ricky brabec having a speed wobble in ruts at ~70mph with just one hand on handlebars.
the human drama is transparent and compelling – they are subjected to clearly unreasonable conditions and persevere nonetheless.
access is quite limited tho, similar to motogp – tight controls on licensing.
ya saudis are sports-washing, but the competition is intense.
“ya, not much other motorsport in january …”
You gotta know where to look. Your tastes may vary but Formula E usually has an event in January, F4 Middle East and FR Middle East have had two weekends already and FR Oceania has had three I think? And the Monte Carlo Rally was this past weekend.
“access is quite limited tho, similar to motogp – tight controls on licensing.”
I’m a VideoPass subscriber but wasn’t MotoGP aired on TNT last year? I hope it finds a home there, it’s ripe for US tastes.
I do agree though, the Dakar coverage was very good, lots of good stories. I wish we could have WRC-style livestreaming though, I’d just keep a tab open at work, but that’s probably pretty complex to pull off given the scope of the event.
Because like rally, it’s a difficult watch. Yes you can package it and present it very nicely, but it’s extremely difficult to follow in real time and get personally invested in. It takes a lot more commitment as a fan and quite frankly NASCAR is dumbed down to be fairly easy to digest.
Some epic photos. It would be truly otherworldly to drive a vehicle through those sand dunes and canyons.
Dakar peaked in the late 90s. Back then, the cars actually looked like their real-world counterparts. Now it’s just…that.
Same. I used to avidly watch & rewatch the late-night recordings of what little coverage we got back then.
This year, I found Classic Dakar after about Stage 6 and watched that instead.
But, I’ve always related more to motor sports that start with cars I could conceivably buy.
ETA: it was good to see so many women drivers this year, though.
Half the shots look like they are driving on Mars.
Too much water to be Mars.
Ford: we want to be the Porsche of off road
Porsche: ve believe yu vill find zat *ve* aaa ze Porsche of off road
Is Ford applyin for badassador?
Every single one of these shots belongs in a 6-panel meme for Raptor owners with the caption “What I think I drive”
Ford’s on a, or, roll today – Mustangs just took first and third in GTD Pro at the Rolex 24!
Toyota rolled better. Yazeed Al Rajhi, on a private team driving a Hilux, won Dakar, while Henk Lategan, racing for Toyota Gazoo got second, both in front of the Ford/M-Sport Raptors.
The Toyotas won because they didn’t take a low-speed detour through the local high school parking lot at 3pm for no apparent reason.
Shouldn’t it be the Shaybah Rally at this point, considering it doesn’t go anywhere near Senegal?
Like most things these days, ‘Dakar’ is a brand as well as a location.
The event was even called ‘The Dakar’ when it was run in South America for over a decade.
The America’s Cup comes to mind, too. Held every four years, the next one is hosted in the winner’s country instead of always being held somewhere in the Americas. It’s only called the America’s Cup because the New York Yacht Club won it 24 times in a row (spanning 132 years, including events skipped due to war) until some brilliant Aussies brought new engineering and a fresh interpretation of the rule book back in 1987.
Actually, that’s named after the sailing yacht America, owned by the New York Yacht Club, which won a high profile race against the Royal Yacht Squadron around the Isle of Wight in 1851, which is considered the start of the current competition
Thank you. Saved me from having to point out the error.
Senegal is closer to much of South America than it is to Saudi Arabia (not that it matters)
That’s a very interesting bit of trivia, though.
If you like that one try to guess which US state is closest to Africa. The answer might surprise you!
Are you about to tell us it’s Maine or something?
That is correct
Came here to say this – apparently the last time the Dakar Rally went to Dakar was in 2007.
It was changed due to murders and threats of terrorism involving the rally.
Just needs Ivan Stewart or Big Olly livery to be perfect.
The shot of the tire crew working in the dark is the most compelling in the whole series.
Good show! Happy for their success.