EVO Magazine - Middle East

WILDCAT 300 STR ROAD-LEGAL DAKAR RALLY ‘RAID’ OFF-ROADER NOW AVAILABLE IN DUBAI

While the concept of a stripped out road car doubling as a track car isn’t a new one, the dirt road equivalent of the Road Racer is a bit more scarce. Corvette-engined dune buggies and various quads are plentiful in the region, but there’s no protection from the elements.

That’s where the $97,200 Wildcat 300STR comes in. Derived from the Dakar Rally ‘raid’ car of the same name, it’s aimed at those who want a road-legal off-roader with some serious dune-bashing abilities.

The mechanicals read very much like a racer. Built on a lightweight tubular spaceframe chassis surrounded by composite fibre-glass, it runs a 4-litre 270bhp Jaguar V8 through a close ratio five speed gearbox, heavy-duty diffs and drive shafts. 0 – 100kph is a claimed 5.8 sec.

If you fancy more performance, there’s also the $105K 400NSR and $135K 500DKR (complete with hydraulic rams for swift wheel changes) with torquier, more powerful engines.

The Wildcat’s UK-based distributor, Qt Services, has partnered with Dubai-based Saluki Motorsport (an automotive garage experienced in off-road motorsport) to offer service and after-sales support for the Wildcat. ‘You can treat it as a road car,’ says Saluki Motorsport’s Mark Powell. ‘But really, it’s for having fun in’.