Dutch outfits and friends Team Dakar Classic NL and CX Rally Team are pushing back their Dakar Classic entries to 2028.

Dakar Classic NL is building a Peugeot 405 T16 Grand Raid based on Ari Vatanen’s car that debuted in the 1988 Paris–Dakar Rally. Although the body and suspension were finished in time for the 2027 Dakar presentation in Eersel, much of the inner workings like the engine and drivetrain have yet to be built.

“To ensure the team arrives at the start line fully prepared, the decision has been made to postpone the Dakar entry until 2028,” the team explained. “And in fact, that timing is rather special: it will be exactly 40 years after the Peugeot 405 first lined up at the start of the Dakar.”

The project has been in development since drier Jan van Haandel, his brother Ad, friend and navigator Gerrit Heenck, Jan’s daughter Nicole, and Jos Notermans agreed to race the Classic together while following the 2025 Dakar. They purchased a Peugeot 405 Mi16 and have rebuilt it to match the T16 from the ground up. The team also developed a service truck out of an IVECO found for sale online.

CX Rally Team raced the 2022 and 2023 Classics with a Citroën CX piloted by Cornelis Lambert Kamp and his wife Jacobine calling the shots, finishing 76th overall in their latest endeavor. For 2027 (now 2028), the team converted a Citroën CX 25 GTi Turbo into a 2400 GTi like what Jacky Ickx drove at his Dakar debut in 1981.

While CX is further ahead than Dakar Classic NL, they wanted to race together so the former was willing to wait a year. This also gives CX time to fine-tune the car and test it in proper desert conditions in Morocco.

Featured image credit: Team Dakar Classic NL