“Jules” was a peculiar face at the 1981 Paris–Dakar Rally. A Rolls-Royce racing the world’s toughest off-road race? That’s crazy!

Fortunately, Thierry de Montcorgé was pretty crazy himself (in a good way). In partnership with his sponsor Christian Dior, he and his team built Jules in the course of just six months by mounting the body of a Rolls-Royce Corniche atop a Toyota Land Cruiser BJ45 with a 5.7-liter Corvette V8 engine.

He ran as high as 13th before a crash destroyed the steering column, knocking him out of the overall. De Montcorgé still reached the finish, albeit officially classified as a DNF.

François Beau has fond memories of watching Jules drive by. In fact, he captured what is probably the most notable photo of the Rolls just as it went airborne, dirt and mud kicking up. Since then, the picture (see this article’s image) has seen extensive use in stories and posts talking about Jules, especially when it was sold for roughly $630,000 at auction this past December.

The moment came in the later stages of the race, when it was going through Mali. Beau was a photographer for DPPI, who remains the main picture agency it and the other W2RC races, with 1981 being his second Dakar for them.

“In 1981, I had the chance to take this photo,” he recalled. “I was on the roof of a Lada from the DPPI agency, whom I was taking photos for. There were a few small bumps on the track near Bamako, and I wouldn’t have expected such a jump.

“I was surrounded by schoolchildren, excited to see the Rally go by. The Rolls of de Montcorgé and Pelletier cut a beautiful figure in front of me.”

Beau was involved with the first four Dakar Rallies as a media member, but was technically part of the inaugural edition in 1979 as a competitor. He shared driving duties of a Pinzgauer 6×6 that served as a high-speed press vehicle alongside Jean-François Dunac and Jean-Pierre Chapel, but also helped rescue other competitors who were in trouble; officially, Beau and his crew finished 44th overall.

De Montcorgé’s genius eventually brought him back to Dakar in 1984 with the Jules II Proto, a six-wheeled prototype car that only lasted about four stages. Jules II is currently owned by Pieter Peerlings and Sir Norman Lewis Racing Team, who raced it at the Morocco Desert Challenge in April. Although the car didn’t finish, de Montcorgé said he was “very happy” to see it in action again.

Paul Sergent hoped to pay tribute to the first Jules at the 2026 Dakar Classic with his own Rolls-Royce build that he called “César”, but it was destroyed by a fire in June.

Featured image credit: François Beau / DPPI