McRae ProDakar 2012 Dakar

This weekend, Chris Leyds with his Mcrae Buggy managed to win the T3 class in the 2011 Baja. He managed to a 30 minute gap towards his rival in the class the Dainesi Dust devil. The overall standin resulted in the 19th position with a 7 minute penalty.

Chris Leyds was very happy with the result. “The car has been reliable during the hole event, nothing went wrong apart from getting in late in the time gates due to distraction which resulted in a time penalty and beeing delayed behind a crashed car that blocked the track. On stage ss4 we managed a 13 place result which is great for a car this size and budget.

Tim Coronel presents the First Electric Mcrae Buggy for the 2012 Dakar

Following long preparations, Tim Coronel today presented the first

electric Dakar Buggy in spectacular fashion to press and business associates, who attended

the presentation en masse. In the premises of partner All Green Vehicles (AGV) in Oosterhout,

Coronel unveiled the prototype version of the electric McRae 4×2 Buggy, thereby providing a

world first. The Netherlands’ first astronaut, Wubbo Ockels, drove the first few metres in the

electric Dakar Buggy and Glennis Grace opened the afternoon with a spectacular performance.

The buggy presented is the version Tim used to win the solo category for the second time

together with Prodakar in 2011, and is fitted with a 90KW electric engine. Over the coming

months the prototype will be used in extensive testing in order ultimately to come up with the

definitive version for Le Dakar 2012.

After Coronel intimated a few months ago that he wanted to conquer the toughest rally in

the world using an electric buggy, a lot of people thought he was out of his mind, but a small

group of experts were willing to take up the challenge. The adventure started at Novolectriq

and All Green Vehicles and, through Wubbo Ockels, was given a home at Delft University of

Technology where a team of 10 students spent 10 weeks (4000 hours) labouring away at the

numbers. Delft University of Technology was primarily occupied with calculating the energy

requirements, air resistance and minimum weight of the Buggy so as to produce optimum

results. After the students had finished calculating, it was down to AGV and Prodakar to fit the

specially prepared electric engine into the existing McRae 4×2 Buggy and prepare it for the

first tests. Following months of hard work by the various parties, today the initial results are

manifest and phase two of the Dakar Electric project can be set in motion.

Phase two will chiefly consist in testing the Buggy under a variety of conditions and kinds of

weather. In particular, the extreme heat in the Atacama desert during Le Dakar will play a

significant role in the project’s success (or failure). To this end the different working groups

have drawn up a comprehensive testing programme which will be carried out in countries

such as the Netherlands, France, Spain and Morocco. The definitive version of the electric

Dakar Buggy will be designed on the basis of this test data. Keep a close eye on Tim Coronel’s

website over the coming months so as not to miss out on the latest news.

An electric Mcrae Buggy will attempt to finish the 2012 Dakar Rally

The Dakar rally is one of the most extreme competitions in the world, known for its extreme and long running stages it’s an ideal environment to test new forms of propulsion.

In next year’s rally an electric vehicle waits to be the first in its class to complete such feat.

An Anglo Dutch team headed by Alister McRae (Brother of rally driver Colin McRae) are building an ultra light vehicle powered by an electric motor that is hoping to cover the 9000 km route through Argentina, Chile and Peru, starting on the 1rst of January.

The car is based on a ProDakar McRae Buggy 4×2 that has been finishing the rally for the last 2 years in its petrol driven model, the new evolution will be powered by a 54KW/h Lithium Ion battery pack through a PM motor with 2000Nm(but it will be limited to 120 NM) of Torque and 200 KW power rating with a wheight less than 40 KG .

“We are convinced we can do this, we have brought the ideal partners to prove a green concept in the most hostile and unknown racing environment known.” The International consortium is formed by ProDakar, All Green Vehicles in conjunction with the Technical Universities of Delft.”

“Range is the biggest issue and top priority. The difficult part of the rally is navigating through the rough terrain. We will have a custom made energy management system with 3 variable settings , eco, standard and full attack, that will help us dose the energy in the batteries combined with the light weight of the car we can extend the range.

For refueling we are currently working  on two concepts Fast charging 15 to 30 minutes to 90% soc at 400v. in refueling points or on race support vehicles and changing the battery pack completely.

An aerodynamically optimized body is been developed in conjunction with  energy recovery shock absorbers that will turn kinetic engine from the ruts and bumps in to electrical energy.

The driver that will attempt to take the car to the finish line is the experimented Dutch driver  Tim Coronel witch mentioned “We wanted to do it for the challenge, driving electric could be fun, imagine all that instant torque!, the only thing we will miss will be the exhaust noise.

Its an enormous challenge – The Dakar rally started in 1978 as a race between Paris and Dakar in Senegal, North Africa. Although now it runs through South America covering sand dunes, mud and stony tracks and the most hostile terrain in the world.

The rally will start on the 1st of January and will last till the 15th of January.

The 3 Mcrae Buggys managed to finish the 2011Dakar. Tim coronel finished in 36th position, Spataro in 37th and pato Silva in 45th position. A great result for such a small car. Its been a hard run not exempt of shortcomings, but at the end they managed to overcome all their problems…

Liason: 123km.
Special Stage: 555km.