This is RaBe Race Car’s Desert Warrior 3 (DW3), an off-road racer loosely based on the Range Rover Evoque, designed to compete first in the 2013 FIA Off Road Rally Championship and then in 2014 Dakar Rally.

Even though it uses a modified version of the regular Evoque’s body, the Desert Warrior 3 relies on a BMW-sourced, 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six diesel engine producing 271hp (275PS) and 850 Nm (627 lb-ft) of peak torque in standard guise and up to 345hp (350PS) when unrestricted, for its motivation.

A 6-speed sequential manual gearbox drives the wheels of the 1,900kg (4,189 pounds) racer, which also features an insanely large fuel tank with a capacity of 260 liters (68.8 gallons!) providing a driving range of 1,200km or 746 miles.

The car has a bespoke chassis made from T45 tubes, all designed in-house, with RaBe Race Cars stating that it has been tested over the course of three Dakars.

“We have worked hard to get the handling and reliability perfect but also keeping fantastic dune-driving ability, which is all too easily lost when designing such cars,” said Mike Jones of RaBe Race Cars. “Just about everything on the car is bespoke, but of the OEM parts we do use, a very high proportion are from Land Rover.”

RaBe Race Cars also highlighted some of the special features found in its Desert Warrior 3:

Special features:

CCV (Corner Control Valve).  This is a Reiger patented system which detects whether you are on a straight or in a corner.  In a corner it makes the compression damping of the outer wheel stiffer so that you have less roll.  This allows you to run a softer anti-roll bar or even no anti roll bar because this system does take over a part of the anti-roll bar function.

RCV (Rebound Control Valve) This system is developed to gain more grip.  It detects if the wheels are on the ground or not.  If not, it softens the rebound damping so that the wheel drops quicker.

LCV (Lateral Control Valve) This Reiger-patented system detects, during compression, if this compression is caused by the wheel that is going up or the chassis that is going down.  If the chassis is going down, because for instance you jump into a hole, it further stiffens the compression damping.  This allows you to run a softer, more comfortable basic damper setup.

HPDP (Hydraulic Progressive Double Piston) This is a double piston system with a damper that has a speed-dependant characteristic.  On an impact with high damper speed, the double piston damping will be stiffer than with a low damper speed.  The double piston comes in earlier with a high damper speed than with a low damper speed.

Poole-based Excite Rallye Raid Team has received three examples of the DW3, with which it will compete in the 2013 FIA Off Road Rally Championship and the 2014 Dakar Rally driven by Martin Rowe, John Hardy and Andrew Coley.

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