Christof Danner‘s Puch/Mercedes G320 has loved success in Europe and Africa, however will head to Saudi Arabia for its hardest problem but when he enters the 2025 Dakar Traditional.
Danner has been racing since 1997, initially in a Land Rover 109 Sequence earlier than buying a Puch 230GE. He started in varied races in Central and Japanese Europe earlier than branching out to Africa for the primary time in 2002, when he completed sixth within the Sahara–Rallye de Tunisie. Two years later, he received the Tuareg Rallye for the primary of seven instances together with with the Sahara–Rally. Again in Europe, he competed within the FIA Central European Zone (CEZ) Cross-Nation Rally Championship together with regional collection in Hungary, Germany, and Italy.
His begins on the Hungarian Baja, Italian Baja, and Riverside Baja additionally counted as expertise within the FIA World Cup for Cross-Nation Rallies (predecessor to the World Rally-Raid Championship) and FIA World Cup for Cross-Nation Bajas (now World Baja Cup). Each time he entered such occasions, his Puch was the one Austrian producer within the premier T1 class (now Final), particularly within the T1.1 subcategory for 4×4 petrol vehicles. To satisfy T1 homologation whereas staying aggressive, the automobile underwent important upgrades like switching out the Mercedes-Benz M112 E32 engine for an M113 E55 and the usage of eight Öhlins shock absorbers.
The Puch G, additionally marketed because the Mercedes-Benz G-Class or G-Wagen, is without doubt one of the eligible marques that may compete on the Dakar Traditional, a navigation-based counterpart to the concurrent Dakar Rally for vehicles constructed between 1979 and 2005. A Puch 280GE raced on the 2024 Dakar Traditional in January with Maximilian and Laurence Loder, who completed forty-seventh general and fourth within the H2.A subclass.
The 2025 Dakar Traditional runs on 3–17 January.
