IT MUST BE SOME TIME IN THE LATE '80s. The Ride of the Valkyries is ringing out of a cathode-ray TV pushed into the corner of the living room at my parents' house. I'm pretty much mesmerised as cars float over the desert floor, motorbikes elegantly glide from one ascent to the next and, as the music reaches its zenith, a huge racing truck flies from atop a colossal dune in slow motion, sand cascading from the treads of its tyres. It's like the world has been whipped from beneath its wheels and a wide-eyed young Bovingdon feels like the rug has been pulled from everything I know, too. What is this magnificence unfolding in front of me?
The footage is a promo piece on Eurosport for the upcoming Paris-Dakar and it is balletic, exotic, and deeply enthralling. Over the next couple of weeks I'm obsessed: consuming the daily highlights packages voraciously, reeling at the thought of a 10,000-kilometre race, falling under the spell of the giant support trucks that race alongside the cars and seem just about as fast. There are tragic deaths, tales of bandits, crashes that leave the landscape littered with debris, and drivers and riders who look broken, elated, dazed, and, mostly, out of their minds. The Paris-Dakar seemed like a fable that Marco Polo would dream up. Rally Raid. Even the name had a fairytale quality to it.
My love affair with the idea of the Dakar has never ended but, strangely, I've never really followed it closely since. Instead, I've wanted to hold on to the sense of mystery and myth that shrouds this epic, other-worldly race. Even now, in a time when access to coverage is so much easier, I tend to look on from afar at the Dakar. Like it exists in another universe. Untouchable, unknowable.
Denne historien er fra October 2022-utgaven av Evo UK.
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Denne historien er fra October 2022-utgaven av Evo UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Maserati GranCabrio Trofeo - The latest, V6-powered GranTurismo is now available in open-top form. Is its combination of performance, comfort and style a winning one?
How appropriate for a car that includes a variant called 'Folgore' ('Lightning' in Italian) in its line-up that giant forks of the stuff are straddling the road ahead. It's almost as if Maserati has a direct line to the big man upstairs. Then again, giant hailstones are clattering against the fabric roof as well, and then turn to a deluge of water so heavy that to top 15mph feels reckless. Possibly not the environment the Italian firm had in mind when they chose to launch the new GranCabrio Trofeo around the Italian Lakes. Still, if nothing else it's a stern test of the canvas above my head and one that it passes with ease: there are no puddles forming inside, as you would expect of a £169,585 convertible, and it feels as quiet and snug as if I was driving the GranTurismo coupe.
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You haven't seen a Mini dance like this before, but then you haven't seen a Mini with a 4-litre M Power V8 under the bonnet and rear-wheel drive. Introducing Vini...