Dakar legends: From KATRCO to the podium at the Dakar Rally

The beginnings of the Dakar Rally they were far from factory teams, state-of-the-art technology and GPS navigation. That's why he was Paris-Dakar Rally a real test for adventurers who have tackled the challenge with converted production cars.

At the very beginning, one of the competitors were brothers Claude and Bernard Marreau, who had previously competed successfully in a number of adventure races that took place on African soil in the XNUMXs. And they almost always drove a Renault branded car.

At the first instance of the rally Paris-Dakarthey set off with a reworked one Renault XNUMXL, which was already produced at IMV's factory in Novo mesto (Slovenia). “The Quatrelle” of Marreau brothers of course, it wasn’t an unchanged production car, as it had four-wheel drive Sinpar XNUMX × XNUMX, reinforced body and adjusted suspension. The front brackets were replaced with those otherwise used at Renault XNUMX Alpineand used stronger torsion bars that withstood the endurance rally efforts.

On the long stages, the exhaust on the roof and additional tank for fuel in the trunk of the car, and of course they also replaced the powertrain, which they also borrowed from Renault 5 Alpine. With a few tweaks, he was able to 130 BAM maximum power.

At the first rally Paris-Dakar XNUMX the brothersMarreauwon two stages and took fifth place in the general classification of motorcyclists and motorists. The first three places were occupied by motorcyclists, the fourth was the crew with Range Rover.

A year later, Claude and Bernard Marreau with their Renault 4Lreturned to Paris-Dakar and fell behind only two crews in the significantly more off-road Volkswagen Iltis.The Marreau brothers set out for Dakar in XNUMX with a stronger and more robust one Renault XNUMXand at the rally Paris-Dakar XNUMX also celebrated a victory among cars.

The article is also available at vmax.si