The Dacia/Prodrive innovation that is positively changing the Dakar challenge

Dacia Sandriders will run an innovative new driver safety device on the team’s debut at the Dakar Rally.

The manufacturer will use a ‘seat attenuator’ to absorb impacts over the rough terrain as the car slams up and down on its suspension, helping to reduce the compression of drivers’ spines, which have sustained injuries in recent years.

Technical partner Prodrive has developed the damper system, which will run on all three Dacia entries piloted by Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sebastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez, ahead of its widespread inclusion in the World Rally Raid Championship [WR2C] regulations from 2027 onwards.

Explaining the system, technical director Philip Dunabin said: “There have been a number of accidents in rally raids where the cars land very heavily and that has created a number of back injuries, particularly for co-drivers but main drivers as well.

“So Prodrive has worked on a system to add what is called a seat attenuator, so when the impact goes over a certain G level, the seat will then move and there is like a shock absorber system, so the seat is not completely rigidly fixed.

“In normal duty, the seat doesn’t move at all but, when there is a really big impact, the seat can move downwards and it absorbs the impact.

“This is a development that Prodrive has worked on for this project so, for the moment, these are the only cars running this system.

“The application… it will come into the rally raid regulations for any new cars from 2027 onwards. But it is already in place here.”

The Dacia effort – helped by backing from the Alpine Racing branch of the Renault Groupe – will include a number of technologies that can be transferred to the Romanian manufacturer’s road car models.

“Dacia have been working on pigments and resin, in this case in the carbon fibre,” Dunabin told Motorsport.com during a recent visit to the Prodrive base.

“These are pigments that are intended to reduce infra-red absorption, intended to keep temperatures lower in the cars. Those have got applications for them in terms of pigment arrangement in road cars.

“They have also brought very matte, IR reflecting paint that they will be using in the future in road cars.

“We use it here in things like the dashtop for low reflection, low glare from the windscreen.

“There are elements that are not in the car yet to do with materials for the seats and so on, which have come directly from Dacia road cars and, of course, there is the work they are helping us do with sustainable fuels with the partnership with Aramco.”