Robby Gordon will hit the gas on his tenth Dakar when the lights go green in Rosario, Argentina on January 5th. His headlining the epic event is nothing new, but what he'll be driving this year certainly is: A car he says he's going to sell to the public.
Team Speed Energy and Robby Gordon have been working on a new racing rig for over a year, and the result looks like a shooting-brake lovechild of a Hummer H3 and Ford Raptor... In a good way.
In a recent in interview in Paris, Gordon described the vehicle as "a completely different car than everyone's expecting me to bring."
Based on the Stadium Super Trucks (SST) developed for Gordon's own pavement-pounding race series, the 2WD FIA Dakar truck (that they're calling HST) is the first front-engined "true truck" Gordon will drive in the rally. According to him, it will "jump farther and higher" than anything he's raced before.
If that doesn't get you jacked up, the truck is also slated to be available in road legal guise as what Robby called a "200 MPH SUV that will make 1200 horsepower in the street version." Forum chatter has Robby's race truck output at "300+" with required restrictions.
He's likened the truck to exotics from Pagani and Bugatti, thusly dubbing it the "Gordini," which he's somehow able to say with a straight face on TV.
In other forum commentary, Gordon called the price of the street vehicle at close to "$1300 per HP" when it finally becomes available to the wealthy public, probably shortly after Dakar.
The road registrable version will probably not have the epic wheel-to-body proportions of a V-150 Commando as seen on the race truck, but with Robby calling it "truly the fastest off road car I have ever driven on gravel roads" I'm getting exciting just thinking about begging for a ride.
We're hoping to hear more from Robby and his team soon about both the race and road versions of his insane new off-roader, so stay tuned to Truck Yeah!
Images: RobbyGordon.com