Bentley eyes Dakar Rally campaign

One of the biggest surprises of the Frankfurt Motor show was the revelation of Bentley considering a Rally Raid program. During the launch of a new car it was confirmed that the famous English marque is working its first SUV and when the car is launched (likely to be 2013-2014) it will instigate a new motorsport program. “There will be a return to motorsport, we just are not sure when yet or whether it will be on slick tires or off road tires" Bentley CEO Wolfgang Durheimer told Racecar Engineering at the Show. He went on to reveal that the Dakar rally could be somewhere that the new SUV could compete and be marketed.

It is thought that Bentley could inherit much Dakar know how from Volkswagen’s motorsport department which has won the famous cross country rally four times and is unbeaten since 2009. VW stopped it’s rally raid project to focus in the Polo WRC. Previously it had been thought that the only event the Bentley was looking at was the Le Mans 24 Hours.