Prodrive builds a street-legal Dakar rally car

When we mention the word hypercar, they're usually seen as hybrid-assisted supercars that are low-slung and built to go fast on paved roads. However, one British motorsport firm is changing that narrative.

Just a few months after the BRX Hunter T1+ driven by Sebastien Loeb finished runner-up in the 2022 Dakar rally, Prodrive took things to the extreme and made a road-going version of the rally raid vehicle called the Hunter hypercar.

Usually, road-going versions offer less performance than their competition counterparts. But this one's different. While the BRX already produces a healthy 300 PS from its 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6, the Hunter hypercar has 600 PS on tap. That's right, Prodrive increased the Dakar competition car's engine output by 50% for the street-legal model.

The upgrades don't end there either. The all-around double-wishbone suspension was taken from the Dakar rally car, but suspension travel was increased from 350mm to 400mm to give a smoother on and off-road ride. Furthermore, the six-speed sequential gearbox was replaced with a six-speed paddle-shift transmission to provide smooth gearchanges in just milliseconds.

Essentially, the road car is every bit of a Dakar rally car, and then some. According to David Richards, “We took the deliberate decision to keep the Hunter Hypercar as close to the original as possible. It’s about giving owners the opportunity to experience what it is like to drive Loeb’s Dakar car across the desert, but with all the comforts of a road car and the ability to drive it from your home, through a city, to any destination of your choice”.

Prodrive reckons the Hunter hypercar can reach 100 km/h from a standstill in less than 4 seconds and has a top speed of almost 300 km/h. So what's the retail on one of these? A whopping GBP 1.25 million (or around PHP 86.25 million) plus local taxes.

Currently, the Hunter hypercar is still in the development phase, but not for long. Production vehicles are set to be delivered later this year. And you guessed it right, most of its buyers are from the Middle East.