The Red Bull SMG Rally Team Buggy
© Flavien Duhamel/Red Bull Content Pool
Rally Raid

Red Bull SMG Buggy: A Dakar Dream Machine

Lifting the lid on Carlos Sainz's two-wheel drive Buggy for the upcoming Dakar in South America.
Written by David Robinson
3 min readPublished on
Carlos Sainz cannot be stopped. With 27 WRC victories, 2 WRC championships, and 1 Dakar win under his belt, he's a force to be reckoned with in the offroad world. But what else is there to do from there? Why not race the Dakar Rally in another vehicle class, just to prove how proficient you are?
Red Bull SMG Rally Team Buggy

Red Bull SMG Rally Team Buggy

© David Robinson/Red Bull Content Pool

Carlos' desire to dominate every facet of the rallying world has given birth to this, the French built SMG Dakar prototype.
Carlos' desire to dominate every facet of the rallying world has given birth to this, the French built SMG Dakar prototype. While his previous victory in 2010 was achieved in a specially built Volkswagen Touareg, it fell in to the bracket of 4WD Diesel powered cars. This SMG on the other hand, pumps it's petrol power through only it's real wheels.
A torque figure of 68 mkg makes sure that you'll never be short of muscle to fight your way over the dunes of South America.
Putting the car's 420hp down through the rear tyres on some of the least car-friendly terrain in the world requires a whole different driving style to that of a 4WD vehicle, but should hardly be a problem for Sainz, a 27 year veteran of offroad racing. A torque figure of 68 mkg makes sure that you'll never be short of muscle to fight your way over the dunes of South America.
Rolling along with Carlos Sainz's new Buggy

Rolling along with Carlos Sainz's new Buggy

© David Robinson/Red Bull Content Pool

Constructed by hand from tubular aluminium, then draped in a carbon fibre bodyshell, ready to race this car weighs in at 1400kg. The engine is mounted behind the cockpit, which helps distribute the weight towards the rear, where it can help give traction to the driven wheels on the loose surfaces the rally will mostly be comprised of. The 2WD nature of the vehicle also allows it a weight advantage over it's 4WD counterparts, in that you're not carrying bulky prop shafts and heavy differentials, allowing it to skip over terrain with a little more pep.
Constructed by hand from tubular aluminium, then draped in a carbon fibre bodyshell, ready to race this car weighs in at 1400kg.
Every inch of this car screams "built to win". There's not much in the way of creature comforts, if it doesn't help you go fast, it's not here. Apart from the essential steering wheel, pedals and sequential shifter, you're going to find a panel full of switches to operate the safety systems and the built in jack (in case of a puncture or when you inevitably bog yourself down at the bottom of a sand dune.)
Every inch of this car screams "built to win".
Facing the co-driver is the navigation equipment, which is comprised of a GPS logger for the organisers, and a glorified Tom Tom, which only activates at 200m from your next waypoint. All other navigation is gleaned from a roadbook, which you'll only receive the night before the next stage.
Set the controls for the heart of the sun

Set the controls for the heart of the sun

© David Robinson/Red Bull Content Pool

Also on board, you'll find a whole host of parts to keep you going, should you break something on the way. As your support vehicle is only authorised to help you after each stage is over, it's up to the drivers to fix anything that crops up. A couple of spare wheels can be found mounted to the back, as well as various suspension and transmission components.
A couple of spare wheels can be found mounted to the back, as well as various suspension and transmission components.
Putting the power down to the road/sand/rocks/lakebed, are a set of 17/37/12.50 inch wheels on all four corners, with a huge cross section to help distribute weight over the loose surfaces encountered on the 8500km route, coupled to 450mm of suspension travel, allowing it to absorb all manner of obstacles and landings. Stopping is handled by hard wearing steel rotors.
This thing has to be seen to be believed, and once you have, you have no doubt in your mind that with Sainz behind the wheel, it will have no problem dominating it's class.

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Carlos Sainz

Known as 'El Matador', veteran driver Carlos Sainz is a WRC winner and now four-time Dakar Rally champion, making him Spain's greatest ever off-road racer.

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