2027 will be Fesh Fesh’s biggest Dakar yet. Besides fielding the new Tatra FF8 truck for Tomáš Vrátný in the main Rally, the team will also compete in the Classic for the first time with an armada of Tatra 815s and a Porsche 911.

Testing took place in Merzouga from April 20 to 26. While the team has four 815s, only the 6×6 “Black Pearl” and Tomáš Tomeček’s Petrobras-sponsored 815 from the 2002 Dakar Rally took part in the test. The FF8 and 911 were also present.

The FF8 is the sequel to the, well, FF7. While the body is relatively similar to its predecessor, it has a stronger engine as well as a new cooling system and suspension to go with improved center of gravity. The FF7 finished ninth in Truck at the 2025 Dakar with Vrátný before being sold to a Russian Copper Company executive who collects rally raid vehicles. The team skipped the 2026 Dakar to focus on building the FF8 and the Dakar Classic machines.

It will race the Rallye du Maroc in September before going to Dakar. Vrátný will continue to drive, with Adam Peschel and Jaromír Martinec respectively as his navigator and mechanic. Peschel previously raced the 2025 Dakar on a bike for Fesh Fesh, finishing 34th in Rally2.

“I was very pleasantly surprised by the new truck,” Vrátný told Magazín PATRIOT. “The performance and speed on rocky sections, as well as its movement in the sand and overcoming dunes, everything was completely satisfactory.”

The team also has the Tatra 815 P28, an 815 service truck previously used by Team Otto Bruc at Dakar in the ’80s, and another driven by Petr Čapka in the 2019 Africa Eco Race.

The Porsche 911 was built by Autogalerie Hranice.

Featured image credit: Petr Lusk