Renault Duster Heads To Dakar & Pikes Peak Racing

By Ganesh

Updated: Saturday, January 25, 2014, 11:18 [IST]

Renault Duster is an amazing budget compact SUV that can be a city car, perform light off-roading and carry your entire family, along with space for the dog at the rear. It's no surprise then that the Duster is the best selling Renault in India and one of the best selling models in other markets. The compact SUV sold so well during the initial months following its launch that it has placed India alongside Renault's top global markets.

Also Read: Renault Duster Facelift For India - Images

While the Duster makes for a good family car, it's certainly not a car you would consider to be a true off-roader (it's not even a proper SUV) and it's certainly not a racer. The Duster's 100 odd horsepower and torque driving the front wheels via a five speed transmission is not something you would expect to see racing at the Dakar Rally, one of the toughest motor racing on the planet or at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

But that's preciously what the engineers at Renaultsport have decided to do. Take an underdog to a race dominated by the likes of VW Touareg and emerge a darkhorse. Having said that, the Duster will just be a shell with the innards of a true blue rally racer once the guys at Renaultsport are done preparing it for racing. As it turns out, Renaultsport did take the Duster to Dakar in January this year, but the best position they could acheive was 29th, something which they are determined to improve in 2014.

Renault has not released technical details about the race spec Duster but instead, what we have is an exciting promotional video. Take a look.