Prodrive's Hunter Dakar racer to be made road-legal

Prodrive has confirmed it will offer its wild Hunter Dakar hypercar for public consumption, with road-going versions available for sale later this year.

Confirming to Autocar it is developing prototypes to develop a road car, Aston Martin's former motorsport division is believed to be readying the Hunter for customer deliveries in 2022.

Developed originally to become the world's first "desert hypercar", on its first outing in January the Hunter SUV finished the Dakar Rally with an impressive fifth outright placing, despite lead driver Sebastien Loeb failing to finish when the team ran out of tyres.

Designed by ex-Jaguar design boss Ian Callum, the road-going Dakar racer will feature an even wider body to house larger wheels and tyres.

Featuring a race-derived suspension set-up that includes two dampers per wheel, the Hunter road car will come powered by the same Ford-derived 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 as the racer that was comprehensively re-engineered by the UK-based race team.

While the off-road Hunter was fitted with a power restrictor that limits output to around 300kW, the road-going model will come with around 400kW.

Other changes include swapping out the six-speed sequential gearbox for a more civilised auto or dual-clutch transmission, while the front, centre and rear differentials of the all-wheel drive Hunter are expected to stay.

Despite adding a more accommodating interior, the stripping out of safety gear required for racing could see the production Hunter carve a couple of hundred kilos off the racer's hefty 1850kg (dry) kerb weight.

That said, the incredible 500-litre fuel tank could stay.

Prodrive wants the Hunter to remain capable of cruising at more than 160km/h over sand dunes for more than 500km.

“When we first had the road car idea, we were thinking of building a detuned version, but since January we’ve decided to go the other way, giving it around 500bhp – even more power than the race cars – plus a sophisticated transmission and a fully designed interior,” Prodrive founder and chief executive David Richards told the Brit mag.

“Clearly, it has to be more comfortable than the Dakar cars. We’re working on the exact spec. Ian Callum and his team are working on these things right now.”

When it arrives, the Hunter could be the world's fastest vehicle off-road and is set to come with a huge £1 million ($A1.8m) price tag.

Coinciding with the introduction of the road car, Prodrive hopes that it will have a Dakar win in the bag as the Hunter will return with a larger wheel and tyre package that, it's hoped, will reduce the team's chronic puncture issue on one of the world's toughest rallies.