Ricardo Leal dos Santos in the Dakar with the new Nissan V8

The new Nissan returns to off road competition in the Dakar Rally with the new V8 Navara featuring a 5,024 cc engine. This is an evolved version from the former model, which conquered several successful landmarks for the Japanese brand at the Dakar Rally, featuring some of the best off road pilots in the world. This return relies on the partnership with the BAMP project, a team that joins pilots, technical structure, as well as students from the Portuguese speaking countries Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and Portugal (summed up in the BAMP acronym).

Terence Marsh, owner of Red-Lined Motorsports addresses the partnership: “The BAMP project provides us with a wonderful platform to market our Nissan race car on what is considered to be the biggest stage in the world of cross country rallying”. Marsh explains: “The newly designed V8 powered Nissan Navara has been built to Dakar specifications and has been successfully developed and tested within Southern Africa over the past two years; and now with the additional expertise provided by Ricardo Dos Santos and his team we look forward to taking the race car onto the world stage.”

Ricardo Leal dos Santos adds: “We were already developing the BAMP project when the partnership with Red-Lined Motorsport and the Nissan race car came about, which immediately thrilled me. This Nissan racecar together with our Dakar background provides for an exciting project, which is focused on the mechanical development of the car, which is one of my key passions, as well as other key areas that we have identified for improvement. It is a challenge, considering we are so close to its first Dakar, but it is definitely very exciting”.

The international team now proceeds with the work in its many facets for its début at the 2015 Dakar Rally. The team’s exclusive truck is ready to go and leaves today heading to Argentina, whereas the vehicle’s development process is being executed in the five countries, including producing parts in Lisbon and Sao Paulo, with tests scheduled in Mozambique.

Ricardo Leal dos Santos