Test drive Renault Duster Dakar

Muddy mud, tall power pylons, rocks the size of crossovers - in a few kilometers of slush out of a dozen Dusters, only one car had problems 

Inexpensive and very practical Renault Duster easily copes with roads so bad that drawing them with a solid line on the map is at least strange. It is not surprising that the Renault Duster Team came to Dakar three years ago. In 2016, Renault signed a strategic partnership agreement with the organizers of the rally raid and released a limited edition Renault Duster Dakar in honor of this event. We went to Georgia to completely rethink the possibilities of a budget crossover.

Once upon a time, an irrigation system was built in the Georgian desert so that local residents could at least grow something, but with the collapse of the USSR, this idea was abandoned, and water pipes were taken for scrap. In some places, trails appear under the wheels, but basically we drive simply in azimuth: we find the next target with our eyes - and forward. There is enough ground clearance so that grassy ditches and old ruts can be ignored, and we turn only before steep cliffs to find a detour.

There is no connection here, so routers with local SIM cards have turned into a pumpkin. Maps are not loaded on the tablet either - only a blue route line is visible, laid along mockingly empty cells. Coupled with the lack of scale and sometimes delayed positioning, this helps to regularly go astray. "Gone off the route to the right!" - says the navigator. Okay, steering wheel to the left and through the sands, fields and stones - to catch up with the virtual thread of Ariadne. Sometimes on the way there are such sharp bends through dunes and ravines that you see alternately one sky, then, on the contrary, only the rocky bottom of the former river. I vividly imagine how the author of the Duster geometry is smiling solemnly somewhere far away.

The Dakar version differs from the standard car by nameplates with the rally-raid logo, arch extensions, Dakar inscriptions on the sills, carpets and rear bumper, new wheels and stickers on the doors. The price of the special version starts at $ 11 for a complete set with a 960 liter engine, which is $ 1,6 more expensive than a car with the same engine in the Privilege version. But keep in mind that the Duster Dakar is only four-wheel drive.

In addition to the basic equipment, the organizers of the Georgian raid installed additional protection for the gas tank and all-wheel drive clutch on the cars, as well as real off-road BF Goodrich KO2 tires. And this is not some kind of special equipment designed to impress journalists, but quite official accessories that can be supplied by dealers to any Duster, regardless of version.

As long as there is asphalt under the wheels, tires marked T / A surprisingly have little effect on the sound background in the cabin. Closer to 100 km / h it becomes a little noisy, but there is nothing criminal, you don’t even have to raise your voice. These tires, by the way, quite allow you to drive on asphalt every day - during their development, special attention was paid to increasing the resource: + 15% on asphalt and + 100% on gravel.

In general, Renault Duster's belonging to the crossover segment has always been more of a formality for many. In fact, the crossover all-wheel drive system with a multi-plate clutch in the rear wheel drive does not let it enter the more solid class of SUVs. With a ground clearance of 210 mm, Duster actually plays in a completely different league than ordinary SUVs, and the angles of entry (30), ramps (26) and exit (36) will make you envy, for example, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport (30, 23 and 24, respectively ). At the same time, the crossover image dictates to the owners a standard application for SUVs: the most serious obstacle in the life of many Dasters is the curb.

Renault seems to be finally tired of such an attitude towards their brainchild: they call Duster an “off-road vehicle” in press releases, but for some reason this does not help much. So the organizers laid out such a route through Georgia that no one seemed a little. We have already been to off-road training grounds many times, where obstacles are measured to the millimeter. It can be scary, but you always know for sure - you will pass. There were tests where a convoy of cars was accompanied by a seriously prepared SUV. Sometimes it’s creepy, but it’s definitely clear: if something happens, they will be pulled out. Now we turn off the asphalt into an open field, rush towards the Gareji desert, and with us in the company there are only a couple of Dusters, which differ from the test ones only in additional trunks with spare wheels and shovels.

Then we find ourselves in areas with deep liquid mud, in which specialized off-road tires are revealed to the maximum. They row with their developed lugs and do not know the ditch. It would never even occur to me to poke my head into this slush on a crossover, but for several kilometers of slush out of a dozen Dasters, only one car gets stuck, and even that only because the driver threw the gas at the wrong time. By the way, he leaves without assistance. Another couple of mud sections, some of which fall on steep climbs: the Duster flies through them, the main thing is to turn off the stabilization system and block the all-wheel drive clutch.

After such gymnastics, Duster rushes to cross the river into the ford with joy - at least it will wash the wheels and thresholds a little from adhering dirt. This, by the way, can be attributed to the shortcomings of the car: the thresholds are not covered by anything and leaving after the off-road section, it is easy to get your pants dirty. Basically, the Duster does not give reasons to leave the warm salon and plunge into the violent wind of the Georgian desert.

The next day, the Dusters did not manage to rest - there was a road to the mountains ahead. Literally after 30 km through the villages, we, with an already diesel crossover, drive straight into the river bed that has dried up during the dry season. Stones, branches, streams, a couple of fords - a real warm-up. Next is more fun. We rush straight up, tacking between power lines. One at a time, to clear commands on the radio, we fly-crawl-jump over gravel-dirt-stones that stick out of the ground like giant Duster-sized slabs. Scary is not the right word, but my crew is number seven, and six Dusters have already overcome the climb - why are we worse? Moreover, the diesel Renault has more torque and is available from lower revs: you turn on the short first gear and go ahead, storm the slopes.

At the top, we finally get into winter. Literally in 10 minutes of a leisurely drive along the forgotten mountain paths, the bushes covered with hoarfrost give way to deep snow. When the rolled ice appears under the wheels, the tires, of course, give in a little: you have to carefully intermittently slow down on the descents so as not to block the wheels. This is not an empty precaution: a couple of meters after the place where the car should stop, there may be an abyss 100 meters deep. On loose snow, BF Goodrich tires provide quite a decent grip: for this they have additional sipes, arranged by analogy with non-studded winter tires. In general, there were no losses on this section of the route.

Making our way under fallen trees, between thorny bushes and sharp stones, it is hard to believe that this road can lead anywhere at all. But after a couple of hours of constant change of scenery, nature gives you the opportunity to relax. The steering wheel stops convulsing from the cobblestones under the wheels. The frozen track gives way to the widest beach covered with sticky black soil - we drove to the shore of Lake Sioni. Two-meter waves of mud land centimeters from the cameras of photographers, but everyone is happy. It seems that this is what the Strugatskys wrote about: “What's the point of buying a car to drive around on asphalt? Where there is asphalt, there is nothing interesting, and where it is interesting, there is no asphalt.”

This special version of Renault Duster is only the first project in cooperation with the Dakar brand. There will be many interesting things ahead. Perhaps the future "Dakar" crossovers will increase the clearance and they will have additional off-road options. It is possible that in the future the Renault Duster all-wheel drive system will acquire additional locks and allow the car to join the cohort of XNUMX% SUVs. However, this short but such a long test drive made it clear that in fact any owner of the Duster can afford much more freedom of movement than he can imagine. And after such a trip, it will be very difficult for me to call the Renault Duster an “off-road vehicle”, because this implies the presence of even overwhelming, but still roads. And Duster actually demonstrated that they are not required at all.

2.0 INC6		2.0 AT4		1.5 INC6
Universal	Universal	Universal
4315/2000/1697	4315/2000/1697	4315/2000/1697
2673	2673	2673
210	210	210
408/1570	408/1570	408/1570
1370	1394	1390
1870	1894	1890
Petrol, four-cylinder	Petrol, four-cylinder	Diesel, four-cylinder
1998	1998	1461
143/5750	143/5750	109/4000
195/4000	195/4000	204/1750
Full	Full	Full
180	174	167
10,3	11,5	13,2
7,8	8,7	5,3
12 498 $	13 088 $	12 891 $