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Peugeot has had commendable success in the field of motorsports - most recent being the record breaking run at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Now, the French automaker will contest in yet another arena - the Dakar rally. Unknown to many, Peugeot has a very impressive track record at Dakar, claiming four victories out of four entries at the cross country rally between 1987 and 1990. The marque has hired top rally aces - Carlos Sainz and Cyril Despres - to pilot its return. Sainz was the event's winner in 2010, while Despres won it five times on his motorcycle. Both of them will take part in the 10,000km rally in the 2008 DKR - a car specially commissioned for the race. The return to Dakar, no doubt, will further enhance the brand's exposure, after it successfully broke the Pikes Peak Hill Climb record with Sebastien Loeb at the helm of the 208 T16 Pikes Peak.

MINI and John Cooper Works (JCW) have launched a special Countryman ALL4 to celebrate their triumph at the Dakar Rally 2013 - piloted by the French pairing of Stephane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret for the second year in a row. Peterhansel's second Dakar Rally victory in the MINI ALL4 Racing is also his 11th overall career win. To mark this achievement, the MINI John Cooper Works Countryman ALL4 Dakar Winner 2013 will be produced in a limited run of 11 units and sold exclusively in Peterhansel's home country of France. The special edition combines a race-bred powertrain and chassis technology with the ALL4 all-wheel drive system. The Countryman is powered by a 218bhp turbocharged four-cylinder engine and is finished in a stealthy matt black, disrupted by striking green highlights. The car bears both the Dakar Rally winner's logo and the signature of Peterhansel on the bonnet. As an added reminder, a special edition logo stamped with a serial number on the interior reminds you of the exclusivity of the car.

While I totally fancy the current BMW Mini I find that the newly launched Countryman is a mini too far. Or in other words, there is nothing 'Mini' about it and it distorts the image of what a Mini is to such an extent that it looks pretty monstrous. And imagine when my discomfort when I found out that the Monster Energy X-raid team has unveiled the new MINI ALL4 'Countryman' racing which will compete in the 2011 Dakar rally series. A Monster team driving a monster Mini. How appropriate. So the largest of all Minis, gets a pretty tall suspension lift, lots of rally development and also receives a massive heart; a 3.0liter twin turbo diesel engine that pumps out 315PS and 700Nm of torque. This engine may be happier in a truck than in something that is supposed to be a Mini. Amazingly, the development and work done coverting the all-wheel drive Countryman into rally spec too a mere three months. Team Monster Energy X-raid seems pretty confident that the All 4 will be successful. The Mini All 4 is currently undergoing testing in France by team Monster Energy X-raid driver Guerlain Chicherit and navigator Michel Perin after which is will be off to its first rally event. The All 4 will make its maiden rally debut at the 33rd Personal Dakar Argentina-Chile that runs from the 1st to the 16th of January 2011. What I can add is that the All 4 does look like a neat looking Off-Road vehicle but then when you suddenly realize that it is actually a variant of the BMW Mini, the opinion changes quite a bit, and then you ask

A few months after a prototype was spotted in the Alps, Volkswagen has officially unveiled the Race Touareg 3 (RT3). Based on the Race Touareg 2, the RT3 features an improved cooling system, revised carbon / Kevlar bodywork, a modified grille and LED-infused headlights. The footwear for the RT3 is a specially developed BF Goodrich 235/85 R16 tire. Other goodies include three limited slip differentials. Propulsion power is provided by a twin-turbocharged 2.5-liter TDI engine generating 296hp and 599 Nm of torque. It is connected to an upgraded five-speed sequential gearbox with a ZF-Sachs three-plate ceramic clutch. This allows the car to accelerate from 0-62 mph in 6.1 seconds and hit a top speed of 188 km/h. The fact that the RT2 won the Dakar Rally in 2009 and 2010 means that the RT3 will be the vehicle to beat for 2011.