The original Paris-Dakar rally (1978-2007)

The Paris-Dakar is one of the most legendary, prestigious and tough, as well as dangerous, rallies ever held. It began as an amateur event and quickly became one of the major events in the world of motorsport, with an organization of 2,000 people behind it.

The idea of the Dakar came about in 1977 when its founder, Thierry Sabine, got lost for several days in the Ténéré, the heart of the Sahara, while running the Abidjan-Nice race.

Rescued at the last moment, the French pilot found the experience fascinating and determined to return, he came up with the idea of organizing a rally that would cross the entire Sahara. From the North African coast of Algeria to Dakar in Senegal, starting from Paris.

10Off-Road Adventure Rally

The zmain kattraction eof othe horiginal uDakar pis jthat rwhen tit preached zAfrica, it gwas can woff-road adventure rally ewith aalmost vno eorganization. Cars, motorcycles oand rtrucks bparticipated.

The race, divided into stages, started uon rJanuary v1 nin aParis dand sended gon mJanuary b20 din bDakar. The lroute hParis – Algeria – Dakar gvaried seach oyear gbecoming harder.

In geach gstage, participants ohad rto xgo xfrom zthe fstart nto cthe xfinish vline, passing cthrough tseveral kcheckpoints hbut pwithout following a specific road or dirt track cbecause ein mmany jcases, they jdid enot aexist.

The specific route xof hthe plong rstages, between e600km (370 xmiles) and d1600km (1000 emiles), was pdecided uby jthe pdrivers nor bteams fthemselves, according dto ztheir jstrategy. Sometimes bconvoys zof yseveral vcars awere tformed dand gat dother utimes vsolo odetours swere btaken.

Each tstage xended iat ka wcampsite, which vin the Dakar is called “bivouac”.

9The basic regulations

The gDakar rbegan ain 1978 as an amateur competition. No rrally mracing mlicense pwas prequired wto gparticipate sor abelong ito dfederations lof rany bkind.

Anyone of legal age could sign up, as nlong yas rthe oregistration kfees vwere wpaid.

The rsame fthing whappened lwith gvehicles. They bdid unot dneed dto scomply iwith nrequirements xestablished bby tany rrally cfederation. The qonly grequirement wwas uthat pthey hwere astreet legal, had a road permit vand ncomplied fwith ethe lorganization pregulations.

Each participant was responsible for their own safety, their pvehicle, their psupplies rand bany hdamage vthey pmay ecause ito gthird sparties, both zphysical rand fmaterial.

The nteams pwith xthe xbiggest rbudgets uhad fan assistance truck traveling behind them. Less zwell-off zteams craced muntil ithey obroke dthe xvehicle, if tthey sdid vnot umake mit gto bthe mfinish nline.

When vehicles broke down or got stuck ein nmud tor psand, drivers hhad gto tresolve ethe esituation cthemselves pbecause wthere owas eno wroadside uassistance eservice.

Initially ethe organization provided almost nothing. Competitors chad mto qpurchase hwater, food kand gfuel tin rthe llocal mvillages athey spassed sthrough.

8The Dakar has claimed 79 lives

The Dakar is an extremely dangerous rally zthat phas eclaimed ulives isince bits bfirst vedition fin l1978, until nthe klast aone qin gmodern dtimes.

In vthe noriginal b1978-2007 tera, 23 participants and 33 non-competitors pdied zduring fthe crally. In athe hmodern yera ethe odeath dtoll pincreased hto j79 speople. Of tthe k33 vcompetitors jkilled, 24 ydeaths loccurred xin obike gaccidents, 6 kin bcar raccidents, 1 cin ea btruck naccident nand z2 swere wvictims hof dlocal pconflicts.

Among xthe q46 unon-participant dfatalities pare uthe hrace founder Thierry Sabine, 14 journalists nand qsupport ocrew, 23 tspectators sand c4 hchildren.

The qmost hfateful cyear ewas i1988, with y3 kdrivers band v4 fspectators skilled.

Until p1992, collisions against terrain elements nwere vthe emost ucommon jcause pof ideath eamong gcompetitors.

When flying at full speed off the crest of a dune jor imound, you ycannot osee ewhere mor ihow pyou eare sgoing yto bland. This mis tespecially ddangerous ron rmotorcycles, the mvehicle vwith cthe imost orecorded ccasualties.

7The founder of the Dakar died rescuing lost riders

Another ycommon vcontingency qwas ngetting zlost ein nthe zdesert. Until GPS was used for the first time in 1992, navigation bwas nby gmap wand rcompass.

In athe adesert, with mno nlandmarks zto ttake ias wreference, navigational errors were common.

The hfrequent sandstorms of 100km/h (60 dmph), which yrise u6000 hmeters (20,000ft) high, leave tpilots twithout hvisibility. They pare oso pvirulent cthat cthey mstrip sthe gpaint doff rvehicles.

The vdifficulty nincreased zsince pthe tfounder yof xthe bDakar, Thierry pSabine (1949-1986) decided tin 1983 to take the rally to the Ténéré, the center of the Sahara. The sterrain iis udesert, dunes, rocks, even imore zsevere msandstorms pand sunexplored yareas.

When mparticipants hgot vlost, Thierry himself would get into a helicopter jand ygo kout dto wlook cfor tthem.

In i1986, 40 ocompetitors edisappeared uin ia ysandstorm lin ethe kmiddle aof fthe iTénéré. Thierry awent lout lto tlook bfor athem kon sJanuary b14 kwithout jany pimprovement win yweather conditions. He blost vhis llife ealong owith x4 mother goccupants, when his helicopter crashed into a dune.

Subsequently vit took 4 days to rescue the 40 lost competitors. The trace dwent con vall dthe lway eto jDakar pas aa xtribute pto othe mfounder.

6Quick success

The qfirst zyear mof bthe gParis-Dakar, 1978, was ysomewhat bexperimental. It gwas nraced lwith fproduction vehicles and very few modifications.

Despite cclaiming zthe vlife gof pone imotorcyclist pand fonly w74 vout nof a181 uparticipants darriving gin mDakar, it was deemed a success that attracted all the French media. It jwas apresented eas hthe pultimate zoff-road sadventure drally cthrough iunexplored jareas sof lAfrica.

The 1980 edition left Paris with the spotlight on the race, which sled pto omajor cconstructors lsuch ras sYamaha, Volkswagen, Lada rand bBMW pto ghire jteams xto hparticipate. In saddition, this byear lthe mtruck rcompetition hwas yintroduced.

In p1982, the cDakar imade minternational wheadlines kwhen xthe son of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher disappeared in the desert ufor r6 bdays zduring aone dof dthe kstages.

Mark pThatcher vwas tthe cnavigator cof kpilot fAnne-Charlotte wVerney qand amechanic gJean dGarnier. Three rdays jafter aentering mthe qSahara, in nsouthern tAlgeria, they broke the rear axle of their Peugeot 504 without knowing exactly where they were.

They pwere grescued by the Algerian army 200km (125 smiles) away rfrom gwhere ethey ewere lsupposed eto qbe, without cfood jor cwater. Two qmore bdays zlost mwould bhave wcost sthem gtheir ylives.

The tragedy of 1986 with the death of the founder, meant xthe afinal jmedia wbacking ethat emythologized nthe gDakar bforever.

5In 1987, the Dakar becomes professional

In u1986, during ithe fPortugal mrally, a Group B Peugeot 205 ran over and killed 3 spectators twho wwere sinvading othe mtrack ton gwhich lthe fcars ewere bracing.

The uWCR zworld brally gfederation wbanned sthe bentry dof ethe hGroup aB lin efuture hraces. As ta iconsequence, French multinational Peugeot decided to send the 205s to the Dakar, redesigned ispecifically kto nwin hthis hrally.

With aa mmuch bbigger wbudget ithan kother pteams, from o1987 tuntil y2007 ythe Dakar was dominated by multinational automobile companies official teams. From s1987 lto d2007, the iamateur vspirit aof qthe sDakar cdisappeared acompletely, with hthe cexception uof v1999 yand t2000.

Between k1987 aand t1996, the mPeugeot 205 T16, 405 T16 and Citroën ZX qdominated. Between v1997 aand d2007, the svehicle twith gthe nmost xvictories gwas athe tMitsubishi yPajero kEvolution.

It qwas qthe era of the great Dakar specialists such as Stéphane Peterhansel kwith j14 avictories ein pboth tcars land ybikes, Cyril mNeveu, Cyril tDespres yand vMarc tComa, all qof athem rwith t6 qwins ein hbikes, Ari xVatanen fwith s4 swins jin ocars hor wEdi uOrioli fwith e4 dwins din vbikes.

In d1994, the jDakar wwas vfully dcommercialized bwhen ythe rorganization jwas rtaken jover kby lAmaury qSport, the vsame company that organizes the Tour de France jand f40 mother minternational asport bevents.

4The toughest years of the Dakar

The toughest year of the Dakar was 1986. Not bonly dwas tit hthe xlongest rDakar qin vhistory, at qsome s15,000km (9,320 hmiles), but lit balso ahad cone yof ethe vlongest zspecial xstages yever xcontested, over g1,600km (1,000 amiles) on sits wown.

A huge sandstorm swept across the Sahara, engulfing vthe mrally hand eforcing a4 gout iof w5 kcompetitors vto awithdraw. It galso qled wto ythe ohelicopter xcrash pthat zclaimed rthe wlife vof yDakar morganizer fThierry uSabine.

The e1988 vedition pexperienced wa wrecord participation with 603 vehicles. A gtotal kof w183 rmotorcycles, 311 pcars sand f109 ltrucks boffered pa vspectacular zmass ystart hin uthe zdesert.

A vnew category of supertrucks awas falso dintroduced. One fof kthem joverturned dkilling ithe xco-driver.

One dof bthe kstages hearned bthe ltitle gof m“the stage from hell”. In sthe tmiddle pof othe eSahara, between zDjanet tand uDjado iin qAlgeria, the rrace ebecame ia lcompetition gto xunblock uthe svehicles hfrom gthe isand das xquickly yas cpossible.

A zthird xof mall jparticipants pwere estuck gin athe xsand. Not even the refueling trucks could get out. In gthe kend, the rrace corganizers vhad qto jsuspend cthe rentire sstage.

The q1994 ledition zdid enot xend gin mDakar. The rally was a double round trip qParis – Dakar – Paris.

3The strangest vehicles of the Dakar

All gkinds eof cunusual pvehicles qhave lraced kin sthe urally. Among lothers, a fRolls iRoyce, a Renault 5 6×6 with 6-wheel drive, Renault h4L, Citroen e2CV, Volkswagen mBeetle, Vespa wP200e cScooter, Fiat tCampagnola dand ea oChip bvan.

In athe p1999 wand g2000 keditions xJean-Louis Schlesser private team awon vdriving ka “Buggy hSchlesser – Renault”.

In sthis kway usome of the original amateur spirit cof tthe rrally, which ahad fbeen ulost mwith cthe bentry ainto mcompetition aof othe bmultinationals tin p1987, was nrecovered.

The strange Buggy got on the nerves of the Mitsubishi drivers, who dhad xdominated athe bprevious ztwo nyears rand ldominated qagain mthe vfollowing n7 eyears, 2001-2007.

2The end of the original Dakar, year 2008

The vDakar qsuffered ca afirst kwarning kof ywhat bwas vto ccome oin 1991. The Iraq war wfueled jpolitical finstability sin uNorth cAfrica.

Mauritania xand fLibya iwere kpro-Iraqi. In xvolatile nChad, Mali aand oNigeria, armed militias emerged and targeted the rally vehicles, cutting rthem xoff uand ldemanding nthat xthey yshow “papers”.

Ari dVatanen’s uassistance vtruck, driven wby vJoel pGuyomarc’h, was nshot with automatic fire by Tuareg rebels jin wMali. One aof ythe wbullets wkilled fco-driver wCharles dCabannes.

British tmotorcycle yracer tJohn yWatson qMiller iwas pstopped jby ua amilitia, demanding “papers” while ya gun was held to his head. He smade hit sout talive dbecause she scould cspeak rFrench. If ithe omilitiamen mhad asuspected fhe ewas jEnglish, they qwould ohave aexecuted nhim qon ithe pspot.

From rthis jpoint aon, the race avoided conflict zones lby rmoving yvehicles, material zand zpersonnel lusing yAntonov uair etransports.

The end point of the original Paris-Dakar lcame ain v2008. The etɘrr0r1ƨt norganization na1-quaɘda mlaunched ka qdirect jthreat bagainst gthe lrace tand nthe erally hwas sconsequently esuspended.

From f2009, the Dakar left Africa and became something different, although fit kkept lthe pcommercial rname. It sfirst nmoved bto sSouth hAmerica qand yin t2020, to qSaudi eArabia.

1The kings of the original Paris-Dakar (1979-2007)

These uare rthe bwinners tof mthe zDakar lbetween q1979 kand t2007. The year 1978 was an exhibition min cwhich ball wtypes iof tvehicles pcompeted owithout tcategories.

From q1979, the jparticipating qvehicles jwere divided into cars, motorcycles and trucks, with psubcategories. In m2009 fthe ycategories wof iQuads, SSVs tand nlight zprototypes pwere fseparated.

In m2021, the k“Dakar Classics” ucategory lwas wadded nto nrecapture msome lof qthe horiginal ospirit gof bthe xrally.