Safari Rally Raid to return
The world ' s best rally Rally-Raid teams are returning to Sun City for 2027.
South Africa is known as one of the world ' s great off-road adventure driving destinations. When American and European overlanders and 4x4 adventurers think of a dream destination, it is often a journey across South Africa.
A bakkie is the best-selling vehicle in South Africa. The country also has an immense diversity of amazing offroad driving and exploration routes. Therefore, it is not surprising that South Africa is a global centre of excellence for rally-raid vehicle development and racing.
In 2025, the South African Safari Rally brought the FIA-FIM World Rally-Raid Championship( W2RC) to the Highveld. It was the first time an FIA-FIM World Rally-Raid Championship( W2RC) was hosted completely in South Africa. Dedicated fans of off-road racing and rally-raiding will remember that the iconic Dakar Rally featured its final few stages in South Africa in 1992, including a dramatic finish on the beach in Cape Town.
North West Safari – again
The inaugural South African Safari Rally was a huge success, and it will return for 14 to 19 June 2027, once again forming Round 3 of the five-round championship. With the route, crowns, and Sun City race headquarters venue being a huge success in 2025, international rallyraid teams and their star crews can ' t wait to return to the North West bushveld for the 2027 event.
South Africa ' s contribution to international rally raid extends far beyond the achievements of its drivers and riders. For decades, the country has been recognised as one of the sport ' s foremost engineering and development centres, producing not only Dakar winners and world championship contenders, but also many of the vehicles competing at the highest level of international rally raid.
How has South Africa become such a force in global rally-raiding? It helps that the country has the most developed automotive engineering industry in Africa. Building on that industrial base is decades of knowledge from customers who demand vehicles that can operate in the most punishing off-road conditions. Combine the aforementioned factors, and it ' s only logical that South Africa would build some of the best rally-raid vehicles in the world.
Local skills – global relevance
The Dakar is the pinnacle of rallyraiding, and the proportion of South African-designed and built vehicles competing at the top tier of the world ' s most demanding and widely viewed rally-raid event is inspiring. Since the Dakar moved from South America to its new home in Saudi Arabia, more than 50 % of the Ultimate Class vehicles have been South Africanengineered.
International teams that campaign in the Dakar and rally raid championships have enormous budgets. The best racers from Australia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East can buy the best vehicles imaginable, without any budgetary constraints. Yet year after year, many of those international racers and their teams choose the proven South
WORDS IN ACTION 26 SEPTEMBER 2026