Michel Blanc will enter the Dakar Classic for the third time in 2026, once again carrying on the legacy of the Marreau Brothers. This time, he and his navigator Frédéric Benedetti will race a Renault 18 Break “Facom” based on the one driven by the Marreaus in the mid-1980s.

Claude and Bernard Marreau piloted an R18 at the Paris–Dakar Rally from 1983 to 1985. They finished ninth in their first try before recording back-to-back fifths. The brothers previously drove a Renault 4 Sinpar at the inaugural Dakar in 1979 and in 1980 before switching to a Renault 20 in 1981, winning the 1982 race with the latter.

Blanc raced the 2024 Dakar Classic with a Renault 4L modeled after the Marreaus’ Sinpar, which he built out of a French Mountain Gendarmerie police car. Despite a series of problems like losing his right rear wheel in the Chrono Stage, he managed to bring it to the finish 65th overall and second in H1.A.

He made his Classic debut in 2022 in a former Team Dessoude Nissan Patrol, finishing 43rd in what he and Benedetti felt was too easy of a race given the Patrol is optimized for desert rallies. The Renaults, on the other hand, are not designed for such events so they were eager for the new challenge.

According to Blanc’s research, his 2026 Dakar challenger is one of just three R18s to feature a V6 PRV overhead camshaft engine and the corresponding gearbox. One is the Marreaus’ car, which has since been sold to a Renault dealership, while the other was a 1983–1984 Dakar assistance vehicle that currently resides at the Manoir de l’Automobile museum in Lohéac. This rarity is because the standard Renault 18 is too narrow to contain such a large engine, so the chassis and hood have to be extended by 20 centimeters to accommodate.

While the car was on display at the 2026 Dakar presentation in Spain on Saturday, it is still nowhere near race ready. For example, Blanc has to swap out the 220-liter steel fuel cell, which came from a truck, for a pair of 70-liter plastic boat tanks. The current roll cage on the Renault is also not compliant for the Classic, meaning that needs to be replaced too. Overall, he expects the car to not be able to run until September.

If he can recruit the drivers, Blanc is also open to fielding a Porsche 953 that ex-F1 driver Jacques Laffite raced in the 1988 Dakar Rally.

The 2026 Dakar Classic is scheduled for January 3–17.

Featured image credit: Michel Blanc