DAF TurboTwin and desert race

In the second half of the eighties, something unimaginable was happening in the world of auto racing! The engines of Formula 1 cars reached the level of one and a half thousand horses, rally monsters, de facto, were ground-based rockets ... In the world of trucks, there was also a unit that breaks stereotypes: a twin-engine monster truck flying through the desert at a speed of over 200 kilometers per hour, and easily overtaking… group B rally cars!


The DAF TurboTwin is not only one of the most iconic cars ever to take part in the Paris-Dakar rally raid, but perhaps the craziest racing truck ever! Judge for yourself: two engines, two gearboxes and a maximum speed of 240! Only a breakdown or an accident could stop the DAF Turbo-Twin ... de Rooy was going to win the overall standings of the Dakar, and if not for a terrible accident, Jan could have achieved a triumph ...

DAF De Neus

Jan de Rooy is the owner of a Dutch trucking company and a former crossman. But, by his own admission, he only thought about participating in the Dakar in a passenger car for a couple of days, after which he chose a safer path. For the first time, the start of the rally-raid Paris Dakar de Rooy came out in 1982, driving a three-axle bonneted truck DAF 2800 NTT De Neus, which means "Nose". And Jan immediately managed to finish third in the truck category!


Perhaps it is worth mentioning that in those years it was not the fastest who won, but the one who could not get lost on the route and not break. Of the twenty-two trucks that entered, only nine managed to make it to the finish line, with Georges Gruan, riding the Unimog, the winner.

DAF 3300 "De Koffer"

In 1983, de Rooy showed up for Dakar already on a two-axle cabover truck, nicknamed "Suitcase" because of the original body color. This time De Rooy finished third again, and Gruan won again!

1984: two-headed monster

De Rooy re-armed the following year. Knowing full well that attracting the attention of sponsors requires not only racing success “in its class”: who even knows who Gruan is? A lot of publicity in the press, De Rooy creates a racing truck DAF 3300 FAV 4x4 Dubbelekop, with two cabs! One each in front and behind, a kind of push or "cat dog". But in fact, the rear cabin was a sham, and was intended solely to attract the attention of television cameras. What was not evident were two engines - one under each cabin.


The total power of the power plant was 800 horsepower, and the maximum speed reached 160 km / h. The first two-cabin and twin-engine truck managed to attract the attention of sponsors, but did not finish the race due to a wheel bearing failure. However, the experience and money gained in the desert allowed de Rooy to build another twin-engine monster truck the next year, and use last year as a technical one.

1985: Desert King

De Rooy named him Bull. A quick glance was enough to understand why the truck earned that nickname. Red Bull, if they existed at that time, would be happy to sponsor such a crazy project. The truck really looked like a bullock ready to attack, and it was not only the first truck with an aerodynamic body, but also the most powerful car at the Dakar of that year! The engine on the front axle produced 420 and on the rear - 450 horsepower.


– Karel Loprais

From the first stages it was clear that DAF was going to victory, but, as it happens at Dakar, one can be sure of the result only after the finish. That year, Czech Liases and Tatras came to the desert, and their drivers looked with surprise at the racing monster and at the guy who drove it at full throttle! But the result is another gathering. The winner was Pierre Lale, in a Mercedes-Benz 1936 AK. By the way, here is the list of the winners of the Paris-Dakar rally-raid in the truck standings, during the years of Jan de Rooy's twin-engine DAFs:

✅ 1982 - Georges Gruan, Mercedes-Benz U1700 L
✅ 1983 - Georges Gruan, Mercedes-Benz 1936 AK
✅ 1984 – Pierre Lale, Mercedes-Benz 1936 AK
✅ 1985 – Carl-Friedrich Capito, Mercedes-Benz 1936 AK
✅ 1986 - Giacomo Wismar, Mercedes-Benz U1300 L
✅ 1987 – Jan de Rooy, DAF TurboTwin II
✅ 1988 – Karel Loprais, Tatra 815

De Rooy summed up the speed. At the last stage, Jan damaged the front axle of his truck. The result - another gathering. And the winner was the team of father and son Capito, who performed in Mercedes-Benz. By the way, his son's name was Yost, and for fans of Formula 1 and rally, his name is not an empty phrase.



A year later, everything got worse “six times!” – de Rooy brought a new special TurboTwin 3600 with a capacity of a thousand horses, and finally won! At the finish line, De Rooy and Karel Loprais, who took second place in the Tatra, were separated by a fourteen-hour abyss!

1988: fatal accident ...

Impressed by de Rooy's insane designs, DAF helped de Rooy build a racing truck that was second to none. In fact, there were two trucks. Both were a logical continuation of previous models and were designated X1 and X2. On the first rode de Rooy, along with Yves Geysens and Hugo Duysters, and on the second, Theo Van de Riit.


That year, De Rooy and DAF built a monster! Each of the two engines had a volume of 11,6 liters and was equipped with three turbochargers. In total, it turned out 1220 horsepower and a monstrous torque of 4700 Nm. The eleven-ton monster truck developed a maximum speed of 240 kilometers per hour! The main deterrent was tires that could not withstand a long drive on the hot sands of the desert. Be that as it may, the speed was enough to first go side by side with Ari Vatanen's Peugeot 405 Turbo 16, and eventually overtake him! The video from the helicopter then went around the whole world.

Vatanen later stated that he was "driving around 210, maybe a little faster" when de Rooy passed him standing! At the finish of the special stage, Ari flew into a rage, and, according to rumors, pounded the steering wheel of a Peugeot 405T16 with his fist in a rage. Still - the current winner of the Dakar, the World Rally Champion, the future winner of Pikes Peak ... the man who was considered the fastest on the African continent lost a full-time duel ... to a truck!


DAF had all the prerequisites to win the Dakar in the overall standings, but disaster struck... At the eighth stage, DAF TurboTwin X2, the second crew, had an accident. On a sand dune, a truck traveling at a speed of 180 kilometers per hour took off into the air and overturned. The consequences were horrific… the driver Theo Van de Riit had severely injured legs, Christian Ross had serious internal injuries, and the navigator Van Levezin died on the spot. It turned out that the belts were attached to the seat and not to the cab or roll cage. The chair torn out with bolts, together with Van Levezin fastened to it, turned out to be forty meters from the wreckage of the car ...

What about de Roy? He learned about the tragedy only at the finish of the eighth stage from journalists, after which the DAF factory team immediately withdrew from the race. Karel Loprais, who competed in the Tatra, won, while Jiří Moskal and Liaz took second place.

Desert of death

Paris-Dakar statistics in 1988 recorded a terrible record - six dead. On January 10, the day of the DAF TurboTwin X2 crash, a Range Rover collided head-on with another vehicle in a cloud of dust. Driver René Boubet survived, but co-driver Patrick Canado died on the spot.


Six days later, motorcyclist Jean-Claude Huguer in a BMW RT100 crashed badly on the Timbuktu-Bamako section and died in hospital two days later. On January 17, a 1988-year-old girl from Mali was hit by a French Toyota and died from her injuries on the way to the hospital. On the penultimate day of the competition, in Mauritania, the car of the film crew hit a girl to death, and on the same day the journalist died ... XNUMX was a record year, in the worst sense of the word.

Never say never"

The following year, the organizers banned the participation of trucks. They were allowed to return only in 1990, but the technical regulations became more stringent. Among other things, they also limited the maximum speed, at the level of 140 km / h. It seemed that the chances that another monster truck would appear at the start of the Dakar disappeared forever. But do not be upset, because there is such a “thing” as KAMAZ Master ...