Alain Prost’s foray into the Trophée Andros racing series on-board the Dacia Duster V6 Racer won’t come until early December, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have a sneak preview of the former F1 champion taking his new toy out for a test run.
Thankfully, the miracle that is YouTube allows us the opportunity to watch videos that we normally wouldn’t have access to. And by videos – or in this case, a video – we mean Prost taking the Duster 4x4 for some test laps.
While some race cars require extensive stretches of salt to get the job done, there are petrol heads that are eager to run flat out on just about any surface, even ice. While the Romanian automaker Dacia revealed the Duster concept at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, the production version of their first ever SUV won’t be unveiled until 2010. However Dacia won’t keep us in the dark for too long because they have just entered the Trophee Andros ice racing series with a Renault Sport Technologies produced competition version of the upcoming Duster and will have none other than Formula One legend and ice racing enthusiast Alain Prost.
Although this is nowhere near the genuine article; it will be a stripped down, tube frame, purpose built, ice racer that is capable of changing direction on a dime on the most slippery surface on the face of the Earth and come with a power to weight ratio that you are unlikely to find in any of Dacia’s road cars. But isn’t that the fun part about race cars? You start off with something that resembles a car you might see on the street and then completely reengineer it to achieve the lowest lap time possible by doing things like putting a 350 HP Renault Sport V6 behind the driver mated to a six speed sequential gearbox and a set of studded tires at all four corners. Just try and imagine how much fun it would be to take that thing out on a snow covered public road.
Just one day before its official debut Dacia revealed the Duster concept - a totally new model in Dacia-s line-up. With the aspect of a sporting coupe and the utility of an MPV, Duster will become the first crossover in Dacia’s line-up.
Duster’s height of 1.49 metres, short front and rear overhangs (65cm and 80cm respectively), generous wheelbase (2.80m) and compact volumes (4.25m long, 1.64m wide) exude an overriding sense of robustness and sports appeal.
The concept features a broad bumper with two horizontal air-intake slits at the front; the grille is flanked by headlamps which wrap over the front wings to form a tapering line of light that stretches rearward towards the doors. The sporty look is accentuated by 21-inch, five-spoke aluminium alloy wheels, exterior mirrors positioned on the window surround and trapezoidal aluminium exhaust tailpipes.
Under the hood Dacia placed a 1.5 dCi 105hp engine that emits just 139g of CO2/km, equivalent to fuel consumption of 5.3 litres/100km.
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