PERU – With its South African-built T1 Nissan Navaras, Red-Lined Motoring Adventure is preparing for the grueling 2019 Dakar rally in January in Peru.
A competition of extremes, the Dakar is an off-road race that brings together leading rally raid drivers and adventurers from around the world. Racing alongside professional teams, amateur competitors also come to experience one of the world's greatest adventures on either a bike or a quad, or in a car or truck. Formerly known as the Paris-Dakar, the race began in 1977 with the motto: "A challenge for those who go. A dream for those who stay behind!"
Red-Lined Motoring Adventure is an official marketing partner with Nissan South Africa. The company focuses on building custom off-road race cars and trucks that are marketed and sold around the world. The 2019 Dakar Nissan entries are purpose-built T1 Dakar Navaras powered by a VK50 engine.
Red-Lined is not a typical factory-supported race team. Red-Lined provides Nissan with an experiential marketing platform that brings emotion and excitement to the Nissan brand through corporate events – in addition to the design, development and manufacturing of world-class custom Nissan vehicles. Red-Lined also provides driver, navigational and technical training to its international customers who compete in World Cup and international events – and the Dakar.
"When we go to Dakar and other international races around the world, we go with our customers," said Terence Marsh, CEO of Red-Lined . "As much as we build our T1 Nissan Navara race cars to compete on the international stage, we are a private organization and are by no means a factory team trying to take on the top teams."
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Marsh says that Red-Lined customers are wealthy and influential businessmen with a sense of adventure. Red-Lined trains its customers and provides technical support as they compete on the world stage, sometimes punching above their collective weight.
"Our customers are in it for the journey, for the adventure and for the people they meet along the way," said Marsh. "The result is merely a by product of the journey. Once customers get involved with Red-Lined, their spouses, children, friends and businesses all end up joining the Nissan family as they purchase Nissan vehicles for their personal and business use."
Red-Lined has had six cars compete in Dakar in recent years, five of which have successfully finished this grueling event. The team has competed in a total of 84 Dakar stages and finished an impressive 82 of these stages.
For 2019, the team will have three cars on the start line with teams from Germany, Dubai and South Africa. The German team will be made up of the father and son pairing of Jurgen and Max Schroeder. The Dubai team will consist of Thomas Edward Bell, the team owner and driver for Sabertooth Motoring Adventures in Dubai, together with his friend and navigator Patrick McMurren who will be the first team ever from the UAE to race in Dakar's T1 (the top) class. Another team will consist of two Indian businessmen from South Africa: driver Shameer Variawa and navigator Zaheer Bodhanya, who together with Bell and McMurren will be making their debut in this grueling event.
Contact
Karen Van Wyk
Red-Lined Motoring Adventure Marketing
karen@redlined.co.za
For more than a year, the SVR team has been testing and preparing its T1 Dakar Nissan Navara for the 2019 Dakar.
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