Ted Toleman's venture to the Dakar rally started on the 1987 event when he used Range rovers. For 1988 Ted wanted to acheive a better result in a much potent and fully developed machine and the TG88 was born.The car started out in life as a Metro 6R4 but was lengthened by 9 1/2 inches and fitted with a 3.9 Rover V8 engine.The car went through the prologue ok before heading off to the desert.
When the cars reached Africa the first stage was a killer with a load of bikes and the cars retiring, Ted and Barry Lee where going fine till a problem stopped them. while waiting for their backup which also had probs being too far behind it put them out of time and hence they retired. After the year before of problems with the Morrocan police and being arrested on currency issues Ted did wonder if he would ever get to Dakar.
After that Dakar Rally in 88 the team came back to base to plan their 1989 campaign to get to the finish in Senegal.The Toleman team headed to well known race car designer and manufacturer Reynard Racing where Adrian Reynard and his team completely re designed the TG88 into the T89 Enduro. Some people said it looked more like a breadvan but the T89 still based on the lengthened 6R4 chassis looked more like a deser racer. The team tested it in Tunisia in late 88 ready for the start in Paris for the 89 event. Below are pics of the car testing in the Tunisian desert.
The Toleman team had produced through Mitchell Marketing team portfolios highlighting what sort of exposure the Paris-Dakar could offer to prospective backers. A PR video was produced to so that not only where you just reading about the team, the video highlighted what the Paris-Dakar Rally was about in terms of TV coverage, Media coverage. I was privelidged to receive one of these videos titled Heat and Dust which I will get round to uploading on the site.One notable backer for the Toleman campaign was Gieves & Hawkes the bespoke tailoring business of No1 Saville Row, where Toleman and Lee had their media day outside the building.
For the 1989 Dakar Rally Toleman and Lee teamed up again. The event started off well and they where climbing their way up through the field when their Range Rover fast support truck driven by Ted's son the late Gary Toleman caught fire and totally burnt out, if that wasn't enough John West one of their mechanics was injured and had to be airlifted to hospital. Toleman had to retire when an electrical failure caused yet another early ending again from the Dakar Rally.The car itself was sold to a Belgian driver Jacky Loomans who used it a few times and now the car is seen at certain shows. The registration number E577 CWC is still on the car, yet its also on another Metro 6R4 that Ted Toleman used as a test hack.
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