When the Dakar Rally brought back the Truck category in 1990, one of the stipulations was that purpose-built prototypes could not be used and they must instead resemble their production counterparts (to avoid a repeat of the deadly truck accident in 1988). Karel Loprais showed up in a Tatra 815 P28, which finished fourth overall.

36 years and many owners later, that truck is now in the possession of Fesh Fesh. The team intends to restore it for the 2027 Dakar Classic, bringing the truck back to its 1990 specs and livery.

After Loprais, the P28 was rented out to Kees and Mieke Tijsterman for the 1991 race. It served as a service truck for the couple’s Toyota 4Runner, with Milan Kořený driving the Tatra.

In 1992, it returned to Tatra with Vlastimil Buchtyár as driver and Kořený navigating. Despite a rollover, Buchtyár managed to bring it to the Cape Town finish eighth in class.

Thomas Marx and Horst Godel bought the P28 in 1993 and rebuilt it. A copy of the original cabin was installed as well as new plastic accessories, while some of the side body paneling was removed. On the other hand, the 12-cylinder turbocharged engine and ten-speed gearbox were replaced by stock versions.

With its new owners, the truck competed in races like the 1993 Rallye des Pharaons (finished fifth), the 1994 Tunisia Rally Raid (second), the 1995 UAE Desert Challenge and 1996 Master Rally (retired from both), and the 1995 Granada–Dakar Rally (also a DNF). It was then sold again, with the 1998 Tunisia Rally Raid being its final race.

The P28 traded owners multiple times before ending up in the hands of Thomas Stritzl. Stritzl sold it to Fesh Fesh last September.

It will be part of a large fleet of Tatra 815s that Fesh Fesh intends to field in their Dakar Classic debut. Other trucks in their lineup include an 815 once used by Petr Čapka in the Africa Eco Race, a former Team Otto Bruc and Schlesser truck, and the six-wheeled Black Pearl. The team and Autogalerie Hranice also built a Porsche 911 for the Classic.

Featured image credit: Radomír Smolka and Milan Kořený / DPPI