After only fielding the Tatra 815 Puma at this year’s Dakar Classic, Loprais Team plans to have four trucks at the 2027 edition.

Besides retaining the Puma, they will bring back the Tatra 815 HAS and debut two new Tatras: a replica of the 815 VD that Karel Loprais drove to victory at the 1988 Paris–Dakar Rally and the six-wheeled 815 VD 13 driven by Zdeněk Kahánek during this same period.

Team owner Aleš Loprais revealed details on the 2027 program during his post-Dakar press conference at the Autoklub České Republiky last Friday. Loprais finished runner-up in the main Dakar Rally’s Truck class with his IVECO PowerStar.

His uncle Karel scored his first of six Dakar Truck wins in 1988 with his #607 815 VD. Although the DAFs of Team de Rooy (ironically for whom Aleš currently drives) were the favorite, they fell out of the order with mechanical issues and opened hte door for Tatra to take the win.

The original truck is on display at the Tatra Museum in Kopřivnice.

Meanwhile, the Tatra 815 VD 13 is a 6×6 nicknamed “Babča”, which is Czech for “grandma”. Kahánek, a longtime test driver for Tatra who first raced the Dakar in 1986, debuted the truck in 1987 where it finished 18th after losing its front-wheel drive. Babča returned to action in 1988, bowing out because the leaf spring suspension broke.

After trucks were banned for 1989, Kahánek took Babča to a third-place run in 1990 even ahead of Loprais. The six-wheeler followed up the run with a fifth in 1991. Babča then finished ninth at the 1992 Paris–Cape Town and fifth for the Paris–Moscow–Beijing later that year.

Tatra leased Babča to MAM Strager for the 1993 Dakar, where it finished tenth with Ota Měřínský behind the wheel. The truck’s final Dakar was in 1997 with Bedřich Sklenovský, but did not finish. Loprais Team eventually bought the truck, which continues to work as a service vehicle.

Loprais Team had plans of racing three trucks in the 2026 Classic, but ultimately went with just the Puma. Featuring a new livery courtesy of Ostrava Harley-Davidson, the Puma placed fourth for trucks and 36th overall with Martin Stopa as driver.

The Tatra 815 HAS is a fire truck that placed runner-up in class at the 2025 Classic with Jiří Husek.

Featured image credit: Aurélien Vialatte / ASO