A MINI is racing in the Dakar (now through South America)

Six BMW X3CCs and the brand new Mini All4 Racing will represent Sven Quandt's team on 13 timed special stages and 5,020km of competitive action in a route of 9,618km over the next 14 days across northern Argentina and Chile.

Quandt has assembled a team of over 80 personnel - the largest line-up in X-raid's eight-year history - to tackle the world's most difficult and infamous off-road rally.

to learn about the Dakar rally http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2011/us/route.html

I learned about the Mini from http://www.ausmotive.com/ but you can shoot straight to the team website http://www.x-raid.de/x-raid-news/News/mini-all4-racing-first-test.htm