A South African Initiative

South Africans Mark Corbett and Francois Jordaan will make history when they line up for the start of the 2012 Dakar Rally in Argentina, Chile and Peru on January 1. They will be the first genuine all-South African privateer team to compete in the car section of the world’s longest and toughest motor race and will be flying the South African flag on their Century Property Developments Racing CR4 Special

Corbett’s uniquely South African Century Racing CR4, which was designed and built in the team’s Johannesburg workshop, is a spaceframe special powered by a standard production Group N 4,6-litre all-aluminium V8 Toyota engine. The engine is fitted with a 35 mm restrictor to meet Dakar regulations for the two-wheel drive T1.3 class in which the vehicle will compete and develops 220 kW of power and 535 Nm of torque. It is mated to a French Sadev six-speed sequential gearbox with limited slip diff. The chassis is made of chrome-moly aircraft-spec tubing and with its fiberglass/carbon fibre/Kevlar body weighs 1 370 kg with two spare wheels on board. It also features on-board jacking and tyre inflation systems, the latter to allow for tyre inflation or deflation on the move, an essential requirement to maintain momentum in soft sand.

Corbett will be accompanied to the Dakar by his own support crew consisting of father Ernest, founder and chairman of Century Property Developments and a successful off road racer in his own right, who will drive the team’s South African T5 Dodge 4x4 support vehicle, Gaye Corbett who will keep the team nourished and provide a daily update via her Dakar blog, team manager and chief designer of the CR4 Julien Hardy, chief mechanic Rudi Balzer (who is his Mark Corbett’s co-driver in the SA championship), mechanic Juan Mohr (a former SA off road co-driver champion) and Colin Mathews, a top competitor in the Special Vehicle category of the domestic championship, who will drive the team’s South African T5 Mercedes 4x4 support truck.

The 2012 Dakar Rally will start in the Argentine seaside resort of Mar del Plata on the Atlantic coast of South America on January 1 and will finish almost 9 000 km later in the Peruvian capital Lima on the Pacific coast on January 15. In between will be five racing special stages in Argentina, a crossing of the Andes Mountains, five stages in Chile including a crossing of the Atacama Desert before a rest day on January 8 in the Chilean town of Copiapo. Then, for the first time, the rally enters Peru for four stages and a ceremonial finish.

Wednesday 26th October saw a host of media and VIP's entertained by Century Racing at the 5 star Tintswalo Lodge for the grand unveiling of the unique CR4, Century's Dakar 2012 racing entry.