By Zach Bowman

The Land Rover Evoque is headed to participate in the next running of the Dakar Rally with a few necessary modifications. The British Excite Rally Raid Team is planning to take to the sands of South America with three cars shelled in the body of an Evoque. Under the hood, however, the T3 racers will make use of BMW straight-six power. The 3.0-liter turbo-diesel engine is good for 275 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque with a ZF six-speed gearbox handling the shifting duties.

Each machine will be built by RaBe Race Cars, which has a long history of churning out Dakar-ready hardware for other teams. All three Evoque bruisers will be campaigned by a fully British crew that includes names like Martin Rowe, Andrew Coley and John Hardy. The 2012 Dakar Rally Raid kicks off on January 1, 2012.

Range Rover Evoque readies for Dakar with BMW power