Hello, everyone, I am your old friend Forty Thousand Uncle Xu Qun. The Dakar Rally is known as the "Game of the Brave". It is the world's most famous long-distance off-road rally, and it is also one of the toughest racing and motorcycle races at present, which is an extreme test for drivers, racing cars and logistics. In addition to professional factory teams, such as Toyota, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, etc., in fact, most, even 80% of the participants are amateurs. So today we're going to talk about the just-concluded 2022 Dakar Rally, and what interesting stories happened.
The Dakar Rally can be roughly divided into three groups: motorcycles, small cars and trucks. The race is wide and even endlessly spread over the Sahara Desert, the Mauritanian Desert and the savannah. Compared to the WRC, there are basically no ready-made roads. In addition to relying on the organizing committee's road map, drivers and pilots also rely on GPS global positioning systems to reach and pass through each assembly point.
This year's Dakar was held in Saudi Arabia as usual, with a total length of about 8375 kilometers, including 4258 kilometers of desert and dune sections, and 409 teams from all over the world set off from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on a wild journey south, taking 13 days to complete the race.
In the end, Qatari driver Nasser Atiyah from toyota Gazoo racing team won his fourth Dakar Rally car group championship, completing the "big four". In the motorcycle category, GAS Team's Sunderland won the championship with 38 hours, 47 minutes and 30 seconds.
And the six Chinese car groups/drivers who competed in the car group and the motorcycle group respectively - Han Wei / Ma Li, Zhang Guoyu / Pan Hongyu, Tian Po / Du Xuanyi, Zhao Hongyi, Zhang Min, Zakir , all finished the race, salute them! It is worth mentioning that the partner of Tian Po / Du Xuanyi is the "Yearless Friendship" combination, the driver Tian Po born in 1968 is partnered with the young navigator Du Xuanyi born in 1998, and the combination with an age difference of 30 years has won the first place in the newcomer group for the first time this year.
One car that caught my attention at this year's Dakar Rally was the RS Q e-tron from Audi. All three Audi RS Q e-tron cars made their debuts at the Dakar Rally, winning four stages.
The Audi RS Q e-tron is a 100% electric drive car, its front and rear axles are equipped with an electric drive system from the 2021 Audi e-tron FE07 Formula E car, Audi said that this MGU achieves more than 97% system efficiency in Formula E, there is not much room for improvement.
Fans who know Audi should know that the RS Q e-tron is not a pure electric car, but a hybrid car with a range extender. The engine is only responsible for charging the motor and does not drive the wheels. According to the official, the combined theoretical maximum output of the dual motor is 680 horsepower, but it will be limited to 392 horsepower according to the requirements of the event. Although Audi does not disclose the maximum torque, it is not difficult to see from its performance on the field that the RS Q e-tron has an extremely terrifying torque output.
Fuel range extender efficiency is also extremely important in the face of an average of 800 kilometers per day, and Audi chose the racing-class 2.0-litre TFSI engine used in the DTM Germany Touring Car Race. You can also understand that it is an "upgraded" version of the EA888, which can easily exceed 600 horsepower at maximum power on a DTM motorhome. According to previous tests, the Audi RS Q e-tron race car accelerated to 4.5 seconds on 100 km/h on unpaved roads, and the speed was limited to 170 km/h. As a car with a development cycle of only 12 months and a test period of only half a year, the Audi RS Q e-tron is enough to make traditional fuel cars tremble.
Of course, every year of the Dakar Rally, accompanied by fierce and wonderful events, there are always some sad colors lingering, and more than 70 lives have left us, including contestants, staff, spectators, and even innocent passers-by. This year, without exception, just as the 44th Dakar Rally is coming to an end, 20-year-old French technician Quentin Lavalee of the PH Sport team was killed in a traffic accident with a local vehicle on the contact route. It is also a very sad and very heart-wrenching news.
In the Dakar Rally, it was full of uncertainties. In my opinion, it is good to be able to get the first place, but as long as it is a player who has participated in the Dakar Rally and persisted until the end of the race, it is admirable. We humans have spent our whole lives in a fight against nature, and Dakar is another way to conquer nature. Our old friend Zhao Hongyi once said that motorcycles are his lifelong love, bringing him a different life, and has become an inseparable part of life. And the Dakar Rally gave him passion and challenge, participating in Dakar may be their attitude to life, a realm, a spirit of exploration that never stops!
On the occasion of the Spring Festival, Uncle 40,000 used this issue of "Forty Thousand Talking Cars" to convey a kind of respect to all the players who participated in the 44th Dakar Rally. At the same time, I also convey my respect to the Audi brand. We also look forward to the future electric racing, electric driving car, in the future exploration of the road will become more and more excellent, more and more exciting. Finally, I wish all of our "Forty Thousand Talking Cars" fans and friends, the Year of the Tiger, thank you for your support of Uncle Forty Thousand this year, we will see you next year!