{"id":35569,"date":"2026-01-18T17:27:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T21:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=35569"},"modified":"2026-01-18T17:27:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T21:27:59","slug":"qa-at-the-dakar-rally-fords-ceo-talks-raptor-v-8s-and-hybrids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/qa-at-the-dakar-rally-fords-ceo-talks-raptor-v-8s-and-hybrids","title":{"rendered":"Q&#038;A: At the Dakar Rally, Ford&#8217;s CEO talks Raptor, V-8s and hybrids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><em>Riyadh, Saudi Arabia<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 Ford Racing helps the Dearborn-based automaker across the globe by growing brand profile, employee talent and tech learnings for production cars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Its latest racing venture is the brutal 14-day Dakar Rally across the Saudi sand. It\u2019s the toughest off-road race on the global calendar \u2014 the Le Mans of off-road. Ford entered eight Raptor T1 Ultimate racers \u2014 four of them factory entries \u2014 in an all-out assault to win the top class in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">CEO Jim Farley sat down in Ford\u2019s Dakar paddock (bivouac in Dakar-speak) to talk with international media \u2014 including The Detroit News. The wide-ranging discussion touched on racing, hybrids, quality control, software development, Chinese competition, the Saudi and European markets, and the irresistible sound of an American V-8 in the desert.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/01\/16\/PDTN\/88220983007-farley-dakar-qa-media-2.jpg?width=660&amp;height=372&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Ford CEO Jim Farley speaks with media members during the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. Farley set an ambitious goal of and winning the Dakar Rally to elevate Raptor as a global off-road brand.\" width=\"555\" height=\"313\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ford CEO Jim Farley speaks with media members during the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. Farley set an ambitious goal of and winning the Dakar Rally to elevate Raptor as a global off-road brand.<\/p>\n<p>Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/business\/autos\/2026\/01\/17\/qa-at-the-dakar-rally-fords-ceo-talks-raptor-v-8s-and-hybrids\/88220739007\/\">Read full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Riyadh, Saudi Arabia\u00a0\u2014 Ford Racing helps the Dearborn-based automaker across the globe by growing brand profile, employee talent and tech learnings for production cars. Its latest racing venture is the brutal 14-day Dakar Rally across the Saudi sand. It\u2019s the toughest off-road race on the global calendar \u2014 the Le Mans of off-road. Ford entered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35570,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35569\/revisions\/35570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}