Prodrive Hunter: The world's first all-terrain Car

The Hunter, a 600-bhp four-wheel-drive all-terrain adventure vehicle with unrivaled ability and performance over any topography, has been introduced by Prodrive.

Prodrive Hunter: The world's first all-terrain Car

 The world's first all-terrain Car

It evolved from the Bahrain Raid Xtreme competition car used by Sebastien Loeb, a nine-time World Champion, to participate in the world's toughest racing race, the Dakar, and thrives in the desert sand, dunes, and difficult mountain routes. Indeed, this Hunter is even more severe than the one driven by Loeb, with a 50 percent increase in power from the 3.5 liters V6 twin-turbo engine and additional suspension travel to handle even the most difficult terrain.

Prodrive BRX Hunter 2022 Review

• The automobile, however, is not only quicker and more competent than the race car, but it is also better tuned. 
• Ian Callum, who designed the original race car's appearance, has returned to the project to design a redesigned interior that is better suited to everyday life than racing. 
• The driver has access to all vital information via a digital display, while the central console has the more typical controls seen on a road automobile.

The Hunter is the result of Prodrive's 40 years of successful off-road competition, as chairman David Richards explained: "There are other hypercars on the market, but they all require decent roads or even racetracks to demonstrate their capability." We discovered that in some regions of the world, notably the Middle East, enormous swaths of land remain unexplored, well beyond the reach of asphalt highways. Why not design a vehicle that allows you to explore these locations with performance that is far superior to anything you've seen previously in an off-road vehicle?"

What type of engine does  the hunter use?

The Hunter's engine, powertrain, and suspension are all from the Dakar racing car, but the manual sequential gearbox has been replaced with a six-speed paddle-shift, which provides a smooth gear change in milliseconds.

• Because the hypercar is exempt from severe competition laws, its power has been raised by more than 50%. On Prodrive's sophisticated transient dyno in Banbury, UK, the 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 was honed and retuned to generate over 600bhp and 700 Nm of torque while making the power delivery smoother and simpler to drive.

• The vehicle is equipped with special 35" off-road tires engineered to optimize grip on difficult terrain and sand rather than on pavement, according to Prodrive, giving it a 0-100 kph time of fewer than four seconds and a peak speed of over 300 kph.

"We made the intentional choice to retain the Hunter Hypercar as true to the original as possible," Richards stated. It's all about allowing owners to feel what it's like to drive Loeb's Dakar vehicle through the desert, but with all the conveniences of a road car and the freedom to drive it from your house, through a city, to any location of their choosing."

The whole car is based around a high-tensile steel space frame chassis, which provides a solid basis for optimizing suspension geometry and performance, as well as an FIA-standard safety cage for occupant protection.

The all-round double wishbone suspension with twin adjustable dampers on each corner has 400 mm of travel, up from 350 mm on the competition car, for a smoother ride and even greater capacity to negotiate rugged terrain at speeds unfathomable in any other vehicle. Its six-pot racing brake calipers and ventilated discs all around provide ample stopping force on and off the road.

The entire vehicle was created to reduce total weight and optimize weight distribution and center of gravity. All the bodywork is built of lightweight carbon composite, which includes Prodrive Composites' recycled components.

"The first development vehicle is presently traveling the Middle East, where clients are allowed to drive the Hunter and finalize their specifications for production cars due later this year," Richards added.