Cherokee in Paris Dakar

What you guys think?

Can a XJ will stand the toughest motorsport event of the world? An abuse of a 5500 miles in dunes, gravel,rocks, rivers??. As far as i knew nobody attanded with a XJ i knew some did with KJ's and WG's

Given the opportunity how would you build a car for Dakar?? If you check the winners like Mitsubishi Pajeros, No lift, small wheel travel also small tires 30"-31".
And why the hell you think Jeep as a manufacturer never competed in an event?? Why do they let Mitsubishi conquer??

Our team here is really dedicated to do its first dakar in 4 years time, we are building experience in Turkish Championship at the moment. I am wondering if it can be done with a XJ ? Would it worth building one for the Dakar???

Thanks

Hmm...

Sounds cool to me!

dont think so
unibody is too weak for dakar
to finish dakar you need at least IFS or a bowler wildcat

Most of the cars joining the race have IFS like the Pajeros.
Using Coilovers and Bypass shocks should help i guess.
As for the unibody construction , i know there are cars running with unibody construction. A very good roll cage and reinforcement to the rails should help for the torture. What do u think??

go find the jeepspeed guys, ask them what needs to be done with the SFA and Unibody to make it take desert racing.

i am also talking with them, but i want to hear everybodys ideas.
By the way the kind of set-up required for jeepspeed races is different. Those cars have lots of wheel travel that is made possible with high lifts which wont work in Dakar. And also Jeepspeed races are a lot shorter than dakar

yes, but your cage design will probably be real close to what they're doing, not to mention the engine bay reinforcement and the uniframe stiffeners they've come up with.

87manche said:

yes, but your cage design will probably be real close to what they're doing, not to mention the engine bay reinforcement and the uniframe stiffeners they've come up with.

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Yea ask them what they need to reinforce for the desert and that is what you will need to do for the xj to run DAKAR. I would guess 33's and a 9" in the rear to start. Seems to me that the video I have seen of DAKAR were a lot like the desert racing in cali and az.

Yes sure, but i was more concerned about the car generally, do you guys see other problems with it? İ know not having an IFS would be a big concern..

If it were me and someone else's money, here's what I would do. Full frame plating and reinforcement, Full external roll cage with pass through supports behind the drivers, Big aluminum radiator mounted in the roof as well as tranny cooler (i'd run a built up auto) and engine oil cooler. Big money desert racing shocks as well as nitrogen bumpstops, Trussed and reinforced D30 up front with alloy axles and u-joints, Sye kit and Tom Woods driveshaft, Chrysler 8.25 or D44 rear diff, trussed, Lots of engine work, too much to list here, The best quality suspension racing seats available, full beadlock wheels with big stiffeners, upgraded brakes, a long arm heavy duty suspension, appropriate gearing for tire size ( I think I'd run 33's). I'd run an air intake hose into the cabin and use a very large particle separating air cleaner like the type used on humvees or heavy equipment. I guess that's all I can think of for now. I hope my crazy ideas help in some way!

D30 will survive?
Can not use an external cage have to be inside. And probably all the modification to the engine will have zero advantage after puting the air restrictor ring to the intake...
Do you think Aw4 is a better choice then the stick.? I was looking into the new nsg370 (6speed) to get advantage of the closer ratios (Heavy car not so much power)

I believe a D30 could survive if it were properly trussed and reinforced with alloy shafts. I honestly could not tell you what transmission would be ideal. My preference is for automatic because it's one less thing the driver has to think about while driving. You definitely need a very reliable transmission, probably something custom built by a racing shop. What are the restrictions pertaining to the engine? Are you limited to a certain horsepower or what? How is it determined?

I'd do an auto, with a big enough cooler and perhaps an upgraded pan with more capacity I think it would live.
I think that the torque converter would make up for the wider ratios, trans temp gauges would be a must.

There are 2 catogories T1 (Modified) and T2(Production) since jeep never homologated any of their vehicles you cannot run T2 and then you enter T1. you are very open to modification for the engine in T1 but they will put an air restrictor to the inlet so that you cannot have big horsepower. These are done because many people died in dakar before. Its more reliability then speed and quickness in dakar i think thats the biggest difference of dakar then Baja 1000

profonde said:

Its more reliability then speed and quickness in dakar i think thats the biggest difference of dakar then Baja 1000

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I disagree with the survivability/reliability argument. While jeepspeed is a faster pace, the rigs are built to survive multiple races in a season. Jeepspeed just has more time between segments to fix things.

Trussing the frame (and stiffening it) and axles will be the first issue to address for survivability. A good cage will help with stiffening the unibody

Next would be lots and lots of cooling for the motor, steering and transmission. Don't overlook things like opening the hood up with vents and also getting cooling to the driver and nav.

You could look at a stroker motor, but the stock 4.0 has shown that it will survive a ton of abuse plus the air restrictions probably wouldn't affect the stock motor. Spares are going to be easy to source and you wouldn't need to look at fab work and one-off things if you stick with the stroker or 4.0 (as opposed to going to a V8).

Axles and transmission type are going to be personal preferences. The AX15 and AW4 have both proven to take tons of abuse, they just need to be cooled properly. I guess axles comes down to money and what you can get. You could go with some nicely built ones from Currie, 9" front and rear. It's a proven axle and pretty ubiquitous so there is good support and parts are easy to get.