The Dacia Duster may not be the first car that springs to mind when thinking of the Pikes Peak hillclimb, but a specially prepared Duster is all set to take on the world's highest motor race.
Dacia is busy preparing a Duster with an 850bhp V6 engine, which is rumoured to have been lifted from the Nissan GT-R. The GT-R is a very distant cousin of the Duster as Dacia is owned by Renault, which in turn is in partnership with Nissan.
Testing of the Duster racer will start at Pikes Peak on 5 June and the race itself takes place on 26 June. Huge spoilers will help create downforce to keep the Duster on course as it climbs 12.42 miles from 9,390ft to the finish at 14,110ft.
The Pikes Peak route includes 156 turns and runs on both tarmac and gravel. Currently, the course record stands at a time of 10 mins 1.41 seconds by Nobuhiro Tajima in a 1,000bhp Suzuki SX4 in 2007.
Alisdair Suttie - 20 May 2011
