Paris-Cape Town 1992 - Hubert Auriol facing south

Thirty years ago, the Dakar caravan headed for… South Africa. By beating his Mitsubishi teammates and the entire Citroën armada, Hubert Auriol, supported by navigator Philippe Monnet, became the first motorcyclist to also win on four wheels.

Published on 31/12/2021 à 09:00

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Paris-Cape Town 1992 – Hubert Auriol due south

Forever the first Autoi/Moto winner © DPPI

Crossing Africa from north to south: a dream probably as old as the invention of the automobile. Citroën achieved this in 1925 with its Black Cruise expedition, but there was no question of competition yet. In the XNUMXs, the Rally Algiers-Cape Town takes place four times and, as performance takes precedence over adventure, the Raid evolves into the Rally-Raid, a discipline of which the Paris-Dakar becomes the premier event in 1978. At the start of the 1990s, it came under fire from critics and lost its appeal. To revive interest, the TSO team led by Gilbert Sabine (father of Thierry) suggests that competitors leave the Senegalese capital to join Cape Town. While apartheid has just been abolished, South Africa is once again becoming a habitable country, but the entire continent remains politically unstable.

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