At Schomp MINI, we love a good rally. Every year, we get together a big group of MINI drivers and rally throughout Red Rocks and Colorado for Motor-Tober. This event is for MINI owners and enthusiasts to get together and dish on the MINI, talk about upcoming releases, and show off their ride.

One of the biggest rallies in the world is an off-road endurance race that takes places in South America. All the participants have to gear up to drive over sand dunes, through mud, camel grass, rocks and other rough terrain, and have to make it the whole 500–560 mile leg each day. This is called Dakar Rally and since 1979, it has been the toughest and biggest rally the world has ever seen.

If you’re wishing you could be a participant, you could join the 80% of amateurs each year. Or. like us, you could cheer on the MINI ALL4 Racing team that drives a MINI – on steroids. The MINI Cooper Countryman ALL4 Racing Dakar Rally Car is worth about $1.4 million. That might seem like a hefty price tag for a Countryman, but what’s inside this tank has only a few similarities to the Countryman in your garage right now.

The MINI Cooper Countryman ALL4 Racing Dakar Rally Car weighs in at 4200 lbs. It has a 3.0-liter BMW inline-six diesel engine with 300 horsepower and 516 lb per feet of torque. Similarities to your Countryman include the windshield, door handles, taillights and MINI badges. The rest of the parts inside this thing are hand-fabricated, autoclaved and tweaked to make the most power and ability for this MINI to take on the desert and all those competitors. With the ability to go 130 mph across sand and rock at 2100 revolutions per minute, we’re hoping the best for this MINi Dakar Rally car, which took it home at last year’s competition.

All-in-all, it’s a 9-day trek along the Dakar Rally trail. So far, the team is doing pretty well and has traveled through the Atacama Desert, over the Andes and onto Chile, and visited Iquique. On January 7, it had a stage 3 win and overall lead. On January 9, it finished in the top 10.

Are you hooked on this rally like us? You can watch all the highlights and get up-to-date winnings HERE.