The 45th edition of the DAKAR Rally, the world’s most challenging motor raid, held in Saudi Arabia from 31 December 2022 to 15 January 2023, has concluded with a win for Janus van Kasteren Jr in IVECO Powerstar #502 powered by a FPT Industrial Cursor 13 engine.
Martin van den Brink in IVECO Powerstar #506 finished third, with fourth place in the general rankings going to Mitchel van den Brink in IVECO Powerstar #511, completing an extremely impressive performance. With his victory in the sixth stage, twenty-year-old Mitchel van den Brink became the youngest truck stage winner in the history of the Dakar and started a fascinating generational rivalry with his father Martin.
After 14 stages and over 8,500 km, including almost 5000 km of specials on courses with demands well beyond the limits of the possible, unanimously rated as the toughest ever set, the 13 liter Cursor 13 engines installed on all the vehicles of the two new teams Boss Machinery Team De Rooy IVECO and Eurol Team De Rooy IVECO proved their worth as powerful, reliable partners in the achievement of the final result. The power and ruggedness of the brand’s engines enabled the IVECO trucks to overcome the Empty Quarter, the largest sand desert in the world, not to mention harsh rocky landscapes, daunting fords and, last but not least, the sea of mud created by the final day’s rain.
Designed to supply the highest levels of power, efficiency, reliability and sustainability in the toughest on-road and off-road industrial applications – long-range goods transportation, large tractors, and top-of the range combines – the Dakar 2023 Cursor 13 is basically no different from those installed on standard vehicles. Naturally, the FPT Industrial R&D Center at Arbon, in Switzerland, tuned and reinforced the propulsion units that achieved victory in Saudi Arabia and boosted their power to enable them to generate over 1,000 HP and maximum torque of more than 5,000 Nm, but in terms of design and structure they are identical to those built to deal with more routine challenges.
