Andreas and Jürgen Hellgeth are competing in the Dakar Rally.

Andreas and Jürgen Hellgeth have done it again. After more than 15 years, they have built another Unimog rally for themselves in order to compete in the toughest and most famous rally in the world: the Dakar Rally. What makes this special: The experienced rally drivers set off in January with a brand-new U 4030 - packed with the latest technology.

A new Unimog for the Dakar Rally.

“I want to show that even a modern vehicle can withstand these strains,” explains Andreas Hellgeth, who, together with his brother, runs a 40-strong specialist vehicle manufacturing company, Hellgeth engineering Spezialfahrzeugbau GmbH. The Hellgeths design and build robust crawler type vehicles that are used on expeditions, for example. The tinkering in Wurzbach in the Saale-Orla district of Thuringia extends all the way to developing their own patents.

The Hellgeth brothers also enjoy an excellent reputa- 18 EVENT | www.unimog-magazin.de UNIMOG Magazine | EVENT 19 Project implemented with: Hellgeth Engineering Spezialfahrzeugbau GmbH tion in the field of expedition and camper van bodies for the Unimog. With the Unimog TenereX, they have recently created an off-road camper van that many recreational campers dream of.

More power for the desert.

However, for the Hellgeths to get a Unimog fit for the extreme conditions in the Saudi Arabian desert, it has to deviate from the standard: The new U 4030 with Euro 6 standard has been fitted with a large 6-cylinder engine with two turbochargers and 500 hp - the standard version is 300 hp.

The group of six from Thuringia will be on the move from 3 January, accompanied by their own workshop Actros. The ordeal will involve enduring about 10,000 kilometres. Daily stages of 800 to 900 kilometres are the norm. However, the current regulations only stipulate a maximum speed of 135 km/h in the truck class.

“We’ve already driven at 160, but the risk of accidents and injuries is simply too great at such speeds in completely unfamiliar terrain,” says Andreas Hellgeth.

Tested under racing conditions.

The Hellgeths put their vehicle through its paces this year at the Rallye Breslau and the Rallye du Maroc. The Rallye Breslau is an international, licence-free rally-raid racing series that takes place annually and so far across borders in Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania. It has been known as the European Dakar Rally for several years. The Hellgeths have also been overall winners of the rally.

The Rallye du Maroc is the last big meeting before the Dakar Rally, which is considered the start of the next W2RC season. New sporting features of the Dakar Rally are often tested in advance during the Rallye du Maroc.

“After exclusively completing customer projects over the past 15 years, we wanted to create something of our own again,” the Hellgeths explain. “So we started the Dakar 2026 project, prepared ourselves and the team as best as possible, and now hope for an accident-free and successful race.”

A strong Unimog track record at the Dakar Rally.

Hellgeth fans around the globe are keeping their fingers crossed - and thinking back to the Unimog victory in the 1982 Truck Ranking: At the fourth Paris-Dakar Rally, the team comprising Georges Groine, Thierry de Saulieu and Bernard Malfériol made it to the winner’s podium thanks to their U 1700 L. Team Pierre Laleu and Bernard Langlois took second place in an U 1300 L.

Not to forget, of course, the Unimog victory in 1985 by Paris-Dakar legend Karl-Friedrich Capito and his sons Jost and Volker in the U 1300 L.