New rally for old bikes heads from Brooklands to the real Dakar

A new rally has been set up for classic cars and bikes that will roughly trace the route of the Dakar before it moved to South America.

Called the Dakar Enduro Rally, the event is being run by Bespoke Rallies, who have been involved in the world of rallying for over 20 years.

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It will start at Brooklands, before making its way down through France, Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and finally Senegal roughly three weeks later. The route covers more than 4000 miles of A-road, B-road, gravel track and sand dune. Just like the Dakar the route navigation will be done by roadbook.

Any classic machine is welcome to enter but it’s primarily aimed at the early Dakar bikes that inspired the first range of ‘adventure bikes’ as we know them now, such as Africa Twins, GSs, Ténérés, Elefants and XTs.

Taking part in next year’s event on one of his many classic off-road machines is Dakar bike collector Harry Metcalfe, a former performance car magazine owner who runs a popular YouTube channel called Harry’s Garage where he shows people around his two and four-wheeled delights.

Ahead of the event’s start next year, some of the entrants met up at Harry Metcalfe’s farm for a briefing and bit of practice.

The rally starts in March next year with places still available, priced from £5850. For more info head to www.bespokerallies.com.