The scale of the challenge facing the inexperienced crews of the Future Terrain team on the Carta Rallye was made apparent shortly after I watched their trio of essentially road-spec Dacia Dusters tackle a dried riverbed.
Once they had carefully picked their way through, a loud diesel roar announced the arrival of a massive DAF FAV75 rally raid truck. With barely a lift of the throttle, it shot over the bumps and rocks of the riverbed as if they weren’t there, conquering Morocco’s exacting desert terrain by sheer brute force.
The scale of the achievement of the Future Terrain team was highlighted later: while one of the Dacia Dusters was sidelined by a radiator issue, the other two made it back to camp under their own power. Unlike the DAF truck, its crew crashing into a wad, and remaining stuck in the desert until a recovery team could pull them out long after dark.
Morocco’s wads, bumps, sand dunes and rocks – lots of rocks – are among the many tough challenges the Carta Rallye crews have to conquer – whether in the full Dakar-style Cross Country, like the DAF truck, or the GPS Cup, like the Future Terrain team.
The GPS Cup is an orienteering-style event where crews have to plot and negotiate their way around a string of checkpoints. While the speeds aren’t as quick as in the Cross Country, it’s still a tough test on a six-day event, and rewards route plotting and quick thinking as much as outright speed.
It’s a tough discipline, especially given that many of the Future Terrain team had never competed in a rally raid before, and that the team was comprised largely of current and former service personnel, who have been affected or injured during service.
The Future Terrain charity was established in 2016, and has run cars in the British Cross Country Championship, but the support of Dacia UK - including the donation of four Dusters - has enabled the team to ramp up to the next level.
Several team members admitted that they were sceptical when they heard they would be rallying Dusters, unsure whether Dacia’s off-roader would be up to the task. Having sampled them, all were genuinely effusive in their praise: they seemed as determined to prove the capabilities of the underdog Duster as they were to showcase their own.
Aside from roll-cages and off-road tyres, the three Dusters being used on the Carta Rallye are essentially in road spec, and the team has been learning about them along the way. Two cars suffered problems on the first day after heavy mud - caused by two days of unexpectedly heavy rain - snapped the bolts that hold the radiator in place, splitting the units.
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