• Fighting and team spirit are the keys
For the first time ever X-raid put a buggy on the starting line of the Rally Dakar. The original intention was to test and gain experience with this 2WD vehicle concept. But the “Buggy All Terrain” quickly became one of the fans favorite cars and because of its eye-catching design the nickname “Zebra Buggy” was given to it. Additionally the fighting spirit of driver Guerlain Chiherit and navigator Alex Winocq increased the interest, because to giving up was never ever an option.
So the two Frenchmen lived through one of these stories which only the Dakar writes. During stage 5 heading towards Antofagasta, Chile the message that the Buggy All Terrain caught up fire ran through the newsfeed. Almost everybody interpreted this as the clear out for the “Zebra”. But Chicherit and Winoqc were able to extinguish the fire right in time before it caused major damages. So they waited for the race truck and repaired the damaged buggy and continued. After the arrival in the bivouac the mechanics immediately took care of the “Zebra” and after a night full of work Chicherit said thank you with position 22 in the following stage.
All in all the “Buggy All Terrain” never let his crew and his mechanics take a breath. Very often Winocq had to work on the car in the stage and fix it with some very improvised solutions which gave him the nickname “McGyver”. But also the mechanics worked through a lot of nights and somehow managed it to put the Buggy every morning on the starting line. With this effort Chicherit and Winocq managed it to bring their “Zebra” through all the 13 stages into the finish in Buenos Aires.
Guerlain Chicherit: “It was really a hard piece of work, but we reached the finish. A lot of people didn’t expect this before and even during this Dakar. It is a lot of fun to drive the Zebra Buggy, but there is still a lot of work to do. What all the mechanics and involved people did during the last two weeks is just outstanding.”
Sven Quandt, CEO X-raid GmbH: “It was really a lot of work and there is still a lot to do. We brought the Buggy All Terrain here to gain some first experience with a Buggy at a Dakar. I think our mechanics now know each screw on this car due to the many times of assembling and disassembling. But everybody did a great job and helped to bring the Buggy back to Buenos Aires. Also Guerlain and Alex never lost their hope and their fun. We gained a lot of experience during this Dakar, on this base now we have to check how to move on.”
