Riding with a Dakar legend

Here's a question for you. Where do you think a straw bale comes into a team's Dakar preparation? Honestly, you'll never get it. In fact there's quite a lot about today that you wouldn't align with racing across the planet's hottest, driest spots.

Mini has selected a very fortunate few to come along and sit next to a Frenchman who is particularly handy at getting from A to B through the desert, be it on two wheels or four. But where am I meeting Stephane Peterhansel just days before he heads to the achingly hot desert plains? In the mountains.

The Austrian Alps, to be precise. Where the temperature is laughing in the face of anything positive and for fesh-fesh, read, er, snow.

The straw bale? Simple. It's what is being used to help people into the ALL4 Racing Mini alongside the man who has redefined the word 'success' in marathon rallying.

The first thing that strikes you about Peterhansel is how unassuming he is for someone who has won the world's toughest motorsport event six times on a bike and five in a car. The first thing that strikes you about his car is how big it is. And how small it is inside, like a TARDIS in reverse. Except cooler.

The reason we're near Innsbruck is because Mini is using the event to show off new Paceman and Countryman models.

Getting into the ALL4 Racing machine is a bit of an art form. You sort of slide down into it, but you then feel like you're belted into a bucket-seated barstool. After a low-slung World Rally Car, you're definitely up on a bit of a perch, but visibility from where I'm sitting is excellent (not always a good thing!).

Evans was given the ride of a lifetime © LAT

Firing the diesel up is a pretty underwhelming experience. There's a big chuff of black smoke and then the chunter of a finely tuned oil-burner. But when Peterhansel gives the throttle a prod, the diesel noise is refined by the long, low whoosh of the restricted (if 38mm still counts as a restriction) turbo. Suddenly it sounds serious. And very, very powerful.

In fact, if Airbus made an A380d, it would sound just like this.

Predictably, torque's really not a problem for the Mini. But I'm intrigued to see how it's going to handle the rough, rutted and rocky road up which we're heading. The snow's deep enough for there to be banks on either side, but in places the track looks barely wide enough for the car.

That's not a problem for Peterhansel or the Mini; if it's not wide enough... make it wider.

"We will have roads like this on Dakar," he says, "this twisty and bumpy, but not this narrow. And we definitely won't have the snow!"

Just as the 728Nm of torque feels impressive, so does the suspension. Twin Reiger dampers at each corner laugh in the face of these Alpine undulations and keep the car remarkably stable at high speed.

When I say high speed, everything's relative; Peterhansel doesn't top 70mph down the stage, but trust me, if you brought one of the shiny Countryman ALL4s up here, you wouldn't get it out of first gear.

We were lucky enough to get two runs and, if the first had been impressive, the second was out of this world. Granted, we were on studded tyres and much of the snow had been cleared, but the speed Peterhansel showed - especially coming down the hill - was just mental.

Sitting in the Mini, it feels huge (largely because it is, remember the straw bale) and it weighs in at 1900 kilos, but it's got poise as well as presence here.

But he's having to work it quite hard in places to keep it in the middle of the powerband. With 320bhp, it's not the most powerful of machines, but immediate response and earth-shattering acceleration are not important here - it's about the mid-range torque giving lift out of medium-speed corners. It's about momentum. And, coming down the hill, we have plenty of it.

With commitment and a busy left foot, Peterhansel keeps the car precise on turn-in and furious on the straights.

Peterhansel and Evans, sideways © LAT

The end of my time alongside the Dakar master comes much too soon. He smiles at my compliments of man and machine - he's heard them all before, no doubt - but he still enjoys the chance to make people think again about what a Mini can do.

And, once out of the snow and into the South American sun, Peterhansel will be chasing a third-straight Dakar win for the ALL4 Racing. His enthusiasm remains undimmed, but he's not stressing about another win.

"I am confident," he says. "We made a good test and my body is well trained, but there's no pressure for me.

"One victory more or one victory less is not a big difference. I drive because I have good motivation and good passion for driving. And driving when you are relaxed is easier.

"For sure, some drivers will be taking the pressure - I know a lot of these other drivers want to kill me!"

Peterhansel is completely laid back about the next couple of weeks of his life. In winning Dakar 11 times and competing 25 times, he's seen pretty much everything Africa and South America has to offer. The African event was undoubtedly tougher, he says, which is part of the reason why he doesn't hanker after a return.

"Since we moved to South America, I didn't sleep in the tent once," he says with a smile. "But 20 years in tents in Africa is maybe enough for me...

"It's not the same rally now. Before it was real endurance, really tough and so complicated - now it's more intense. It's more like a long sprint.

"But this year will be tougher: they tried to find some of the old spirit of Dakar with more kilometres and some tougher places. I'm happy for this and I'm happy for it to stay in South America.

"The good thing here is that we can find different roads; like Africa we have the desert roads, but also around Cordoba we have a lot of WRC roads and it's a real pleasure to drive the Mini on these roads."

Driving pleasure is a driving force for him. Ask Peterhansel to describe the feeling of flat-chat across the Atacama and he replies: "My car is like a toy and I love to play with this toy in the desert."

And nobody's ready to take his toy away just yet.