The boffins at Prodrive have made its Hunter Dakar racer road legal, giving it a healthy performance bump in the process
Think race car for the road and the cliche quickly turns to the likes of 911 GT3s and Lamborghini Huracan STOs, but the guys and gals at Prodrive have other ideas: meet the Hunter BRX T1+ Hypercar, the ‘road car’ version of the Dakar racer it built for nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb.
Built around the same high tensile steel chassis as the dune basher, the Hunter BRX T1+ is powered by the same 3.5-litre twin-turbo Ford V6 (F150 Raptor, GT) as the competition car, retaining that car’s dry sump lubrication, but with no legislation to adhere to the power is increased by more than 50 per cent to over 600bhp with 516lb ft of torque accompanying it. The six-speed gearbox is also carried over, although the sequential manual shift system has been replaced with paddles for smoother operation.
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As with the Dakar version, double-wishbone suspension is fitted at each corner with twin adjustable dampers providing 400mm of travel – 50mm more than the competition car – to get over those particularly high urban kerbs. It does sit 100mm lower than the race though. And yes, the 35-inch tyres stay, which means while the Hunter could theoretically reach 100kph in under four-seconds and top 290kph, it’s still set up as an all-terrain vehicle rather than for track days, although it retains its quartet of six-piston calipers and ventilated discs.
The carbon composite body is as per Loeb’s company car to a point. The large side mounted storage pods that are home to the spare wheels on the rally car are now intakes to aid powertrain cooling, and the gargantuan 480-litre fuel tank can be resized to suit your needs and provide additional storage space if required. Prodrive also asked Ian Callum to create an interior more fitting for a road car, with sound deadening added where possible, the competition seats replaced with more road car use friendly units and a centre console installed. But the hydraulic handbrake lever stays and it remains very much a Rally-Raid car with some interior trim, just as it should be.
A development car is currently earning its keep and entertaining potential customers on a tour of the Middle East ahead of the first deliveries later in 2022. And the price? $1.65m plus local taxes.
This article originally appeared at evo.co.uk
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