The Dakar Rally, one of the most gruelling motor sport events in the calendar finished last month in Buenos Aires and this year all of the top 13 ranked teams were equipped with GKN’s propshafts and sideshafts.

The rally is one of the world’s most famous long distance events and with over 9,000 stage kilometres, it is a true marathon race, mostly taking place in desert conditions. It means it is an amazingly tough test for vehicle components. Over many years, driveline specialist GKN has supplied many participating teams with sideshafts, propshafts and other components. In 2015, 70% of the rally cars were equipped by GKN Motorsport with the latest driveshaft technology.

These applications use GKN’s latest fixed joint generation SX, Countertrack which allows smaller packaging and also improved efficiency for the user. SX joints offer an efficiency improvement of up to 60% when compared to current Rzeppa fixed joints.

Product development in this extreme testing ground contributes to the quality of components available in the GKN aftermarket range for repair and replacement on passenger cars, 4WD, SUVs and light commercial vehicles. Replacement and repair parts for the independent aftermarket are supplied under the well known brand names SPIDAN and LÖBRO.