Dakar Rally

Forty-four years after BMW's R 80 G/S triumphed in the Paris-Dakar rally in 1981, the company has unveiled its new dirt-focused boxer. It embraces the very spirit of the OG bike and expands BMW’s roadster platform with electronic and structural upgrades.

RZR Racing has been on something of a tear recently. The team partnered with Sebastian Loeb Racing and put Brock Heger in the driver’s seat. Then it won the Dakar. Twice in a row. And the machine that did it is now going into factory production.

Each year, dozens of professional photographers from around the world compete to take the most iconic and most amazing desert images from the most amazing and iconic desert competitions – the Dakar Rally. Here are our picks of the pics.

Dakar is unlike any other race on the face of the Earth. Segway is one of the last bike makers you’d expect to find in the rally - mainly because the Chinese maker doesn’t produce a single bike that is capable of serious off-road riding. Until now.

Dakar Rally participants know what they're signing up for: a gruelling two-week ordeal they have no guarantee of completing. But this storied event was born of an even more extreme and dangerous experience, that one man had to endure all alone...

HySE, a Japanese research association that counts Honda, Toyota and Yamaha as members, is preparing a hydrogen ICE-powered side-by-side for Dakar 2024. Its supercharged X1 off-roader will tackle part of the grueling event for hydrogen engine R&D.

The Prodrive Hunter looks like it could be a more serious proposition than the average off-road sports car fantasy. The new coupe brings Dakar-proven design to the high-dollar sports car market, letting any novice pilot a fast all-terrain adventure.

French company Gaussin is pushing hard on hydrogen-based long-haul trucking, and to prove it's ready to bang with the big boys, it's taking the first hydrogen race truck to the Dakar rally in Saudi Arabia next year for the ultimate torture test.

Audi has developed the range-extended electric rally car it will run in Dakar 2022. The 671-hp RS Q e-tron launches forward on dual electric axles and uses a turbo engine-generator to maintain drive power through gruelling off-road competition

Modern-day Audi motorsport participation began with rally racing back in the 1980's. But Audi never raced in the toughest of them all: Dakar. That changes in 2022, as Audi plans a debut with an electrified Dakar car that looks to be a snarling beast.

There wouldn't be many motorcycling reprobates who haven't dreamed of testing their mettle in the storied Dakar Rally, piles of navigation instruments teetering atop their dash. Well, KTM's got the bike for you, if your pockets are deep enough.

In 2020, the Dakar Rally made another controversial move, this time to the endless desert sands and razor-sharp rocky outcroppings of Saudi Arabia for the ultimate torture test of man and machine. And this year's images are absolutely stunning.