Team RACING LADA: bringing the Lada Niva 35 years later back to the 2022 Dakar Classic

Team RACING LADA is officially registered for the Dakar Classic 2022 representing for the first time Switzerland with Mario Jacober (driver) and Sladjan Miljic (co-driver) and 35 years since Jacky Ickx drove a Lada Niva (#187) at the Paris-Dakar in 1987. Mario talked to Telegram Channel Cross-Country Rally News about the 2022 Dakar project.

Team: RACING LADA

Driver: Mario Jacober (Zug, Switzerland)

Co-driver:  Sladjan Miljic (Glarus, Switzerland)

Car: 84’ Lada Niva 1600 4x4

Sponsors: Legends.Design

Social media:

Instagram: teamracinglada

CCR: Who are you and why are you doing this project?

Two passionate car aficionados from Switzerland, who share the vision to revive the glory of the Lada Niva at the Dakar and their overall success during the 80’s rally motorsport era.

In our free time we restore classic sports cars and organize special rallies & exclusive car events.  Our vision is to be the first Lada Niva racing team since 35 years (POCH Niva, #185 Jacky Ickx/Christian Tarin) to compete again in the Dakar rally. The Dakar rally is a childhood dream and with the ’Classic’ category we can combine it with our passion for classic sports cars.  Our motivation is to do something crazy that is challenging and an adventure of a lifetime. With this in mind our objective is to successfully finish the Dakar Classic race representing Switzerland and paying tribute to the Lada Niva.  With my close roots to Russia our Lada Niva’s are being assembled in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

CCR: Tell us about the car that you picked for the race?

The base of the car is a ’84 Lada Niva 1600 4x4 (VAZ 2121) from Novosibirsk, Russia with 82k km having had 2 previous owners.  The condition of the car was very original without any major rust.

Neverless the Niva was fully disassembled, the chassis sandblasted and reinforced following the specificarions of the early Lada Niva‘s participating in the Paris-Dakar. The engine is the original 4 cylinder in-line 1568ccm, which has been fully refurbished including sports carburators. All other components are according to the Dakar Classic & FIA technical requirements. 

Currently we are finalizing the assembly and will conduct thorough testing & fine tuning of the car begining of June before being transported to Switzerland to participate in a few events prior to Dakar.

Important to mention is the great support we receive from Roland Kussmaul and Wolfgang-Hendrik Unger (#187 Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar ‘86) providing technical consulting and important insights into the Dakar rally from their experience having been part of the Rothamans Porsche Racing Team and key to the success of Porsche during the Paris-Dakar ‘84-‘86!

CCR: You have already studied the new regulations, what do you think is most important? Do you have an experience in such rallies?

In the 2nd edition of the Dakar Classic the regularity will no longer be the only evaluation criteria. On some sections representing about 20% of the course, only navigation will be judged: there will be no stopwatch, and each excess kilometre covered will cost the drivers points. 

New rules are important... with the “navigation” it will allow for teams to choose to drive through more challenging terrain like dunes (if they want to and have a car that can handle it). Also they require now every car to have a “kill switch” that was not required in last years rally!

CCR: You've organized a livery design competition among your subscribers in Instagram, tell us about the result.

In order to best possible represent our Lada Niva at the Dakar 2022 we organized a livery design competition allowing designers and artists to submitt their illustrations on how the Team Racing Lada rally Niva livery could look like. Out of the 15+ liveries we choose the one from @tintofstudios referencing the iconic Rothmans livery with the blue, red and gold stripes. This livery best represents the spirit we want to convey to revive the great days of the 80/90’s rally motorsport. To see some of the submissions check out our instagram page.