Henry Favre has always been kind of a comedian, but this is a joke that he seems to be taking seriously.

For the 2026 Dakar Classic, he and his friend Alessandro Iacovelli plan to race a Mitsubishi Delica.

Also known as the L300, the Delica is a minivan that first appeared at the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1984. It was driven by Eizuke Takeda as a support vehicle for Yoshimasa Sugawara’s Honda bike team, but retired because the engine was too weak to go through the Algerian mountains and Takeda had to be subbed out due to illness. Sugawara, having switched to driving a car, fielded another Delica with Koya Nitta behind the wheel in 1985 only for it and everyone in the team (the Delica, Sugawara’s Mitsubishi, and a Pajero fast assistance vehicle) to DNF.

Favre and Iacovelli made their Dakar Classic debuts in January in a 1990 Mitsubishi Pajero, finishing 78th overall. The pair were set back early on by speeding penalties followed by mechanical issues like the sway bar coming loose, the bumper’s frame breaking off, and oil issues. At one point, the gearbox failed just kilometers into the timed section, so they passed the time playing badminton with their car as the “net” until help arrived.

Over the spring, Favre got his hands on a Delica. He announced his plans to race on April 1, leading many to assume it was just an April Fool’s joke before he confirmed the next day that he’s being serious.

Of course, doing a rally raid in a minivan designed for transporting goods (hence its name, a portmanteau of “Delivery car”) is not exactly a walk in the park. Favre is well aware of this, quipping that the goal is to “win the ‘becchi’ category” (Italian for “beak”).

Among the work the friends have to do is gut the interior. For example, “we can’t take eight people to the Dakar” so the seats had to be removed while a roll cage was installed. The van also sports a 1.2-liter Fiat FIRE motor.

The effort eventually encountered some snags and they’re on a shoestring budget, but Favre confirmed Friday that the project is “well underway.”

It wouldn’t be their first time undertaking such a massive rebuild either since their Pajero was in bad shape when they acquired it. Still, they’re up for the challenge.

“Our L300 will be the anti-party, anti-watermelon and anti-hybrid summer,” Favre remarked. “We don’t have a penny, we barely have a working piston, and the companies think it’s a colossal scam: we don’t believe in it too much either but we will be ready for the stupidest, slowest and least competitive winter possible.”

Featured image credit: Henry Favre