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Bahrain’s newest Dakar Rally team, Bahrain Raid Xtreme (BRX) has unveiled its T1 category car in the lead-up to next year’s cross-country rally.
The BRX T1, developed at Prodrive International’s Banbury, UK headquarters, has a 3.5-litre V6 twin turbo engine, packing in 400bhp of power and 700Nm of torque.
David Richards CBE, founder and chairman of Prodrive and team director of BRX, said: “Our design team has been working on the car for over nine months. We have already been evaluating the engine on our transient dyno in Banbury and the first chassis is now being assembled in our workshop. The formation of a new team is incredibly exciting for everyone involved, and we truly believe we have created a team and car that is perfect to take on the Dakar Rally.”
The T1 has a carbon and nature fibre composite body within a high-strength tubular structure with built in hydraulic jacks and a double wishbone suspension.
With a 500-litre fuel tank, the car is well suited for the 10-day race, during which racers can cover up to 900km per day on a variety of terrain including off-road, dunes, mud, camel grass and rock.
BRX T1 is the latest rally car by Prodrive International, a joint venture between Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat) - the kingdom’s sovereign fund and British motorsport giant, Prodrive.
“The Dakar Rally is one of the great challenges within motorsport, and one that Prodrive has been wanting to undertake for a long time; waiting for the right opportunity,” David added. “The idea came from HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, for Bahrain to enter a team. That was the birth of BRX.”
The new car, visually distinctive with red livery evolved by leading automotive designer Callum, will be building on the kingdom’s successful run at Dakar 2020, with the kingdom’s JCW X-Raid team claiming the top prize.
David, with a motorsport history of more than 40 years, will be leading the team, after helping Prodrive win six world rally titles and five Le Mans. Drivers for the team have not yet been announced.
“With the expertise of David Richards and his team, coupled with Bahrain’s desire to showcase our region to the world makes for a truly exciting venture for Mumtalakat and our country,” said Khalid Rumaihi, chief executive of sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat. “When BRX arrives at the 2021 Dakar Rally start line, it will be a very proud moment, and a chapter in Bahrain’s motorsport history that we are looking forward to writing.”
