{"id":10285,"date":"2024-01-03T14:13:32","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T14:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=10285"},"modified":"2024-01-03T14:13:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T14:13:34","slug":"desert-cowboy-rene-metge-dead-at-82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=10285","title":{"rendered":"Desert cowboy Ren\u00e9 Metge dead at 82"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Triple Paris \u2013 Dakar winner Ren\u00e9 Metge has passed away in hospital in France. Next to his career in rally raids, Metge was also a talented circuit driver, racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours and in touring cars.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whereas Jacky Ickx was the one who led Porsche into the desert, it was Metge who would enjoy the most success, winning twice with Porsche in 1984 and 1986. Early eighties, Ickx and Metge were the fastest and most astute drivers in the Paris \u2013 Dakar rally raid. Both could claim they were ultimately responsible for the Dakar\u2019s transition from a hippie-esque adventurous raid to a no-prisoners-held top motorsport event where manufacturers would duel with high-powered prototypes. Budgets would quickly escalate and push the amateur drivers lower down the order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paris – Dakar, 1984. Photo Porsche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rover dealer\/racer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Metge was the first to break the mould, winning in a not-so-standard Range Rover in 1981. At the time, Ren\u00e9 Metge was a racer, but most of all a successful Rover dealer in France (Rover, Jaguar, Land Rover). Through his connections with BL\u2019s motorsport division, he received a Range Rover that had been tweaked by TWR, with a prototype five-speed Overfinch gearbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ickx would take the game further, first by winning in 1983 with a prototype Mercedes 280 GE, and after that by convincing Porsche to enter the Dakar rally, first with a four-wheel driven 911 prototype \u2013 the 953 \u2013 in 1984, and in 1985 and 1986 with the mindblowing 959. As Jacky Ickx explained in the interview in Tazio 9: \u201cOf course I knew I attracted a fierce competitor by asking Ren\u00e9 to join us. But this doubled Porsche\u2019s chances of victory, so for me it was a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 1985 Porsche squad came, brought in Ren\u00e9 Metge, Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass, but failed to finish in 1985. Photo Porsche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Striking back with 959<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1984, Metge built up a substantial lead, whereas Ickx was obliged to chase hard after electrical gremlins early in the race. He would crash out later. 1985 was a disastrous year for Porsche, losing all three cars. Porsche came back with a vengeance for 1986. It scored a one-two for Metge\/Lemoine and Ickx\/Brasseur, even if a massive effort was required by Porsche\u2019s engineer Roland Kussmaul, who was driving the third 959. Both Metge and Ickx had come stuck whilst crossing a river in Senegal. Kussmaul managed to pull them out, clearing their path for victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Porsche 959, Paris – Dakar 1985. Photo Porsche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Metge\u2019s knowledge of the African \u2018pistes\u2019 was legendary, and he read the road unlike any other, managing to spot traps that others didn\u2019t see. But the 1986 Paris \u2013 Dakar was overshadowed by the death of its organizer Thierry Sabine in a helicopter crash. Metge would make sure the event could continue, and he took over as race director for the following two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Metge (right) with Jean-Louis Schlesser, in the African desert with the Africa Eco Race. Photo Africe Eco Race<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Metge, the organizer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Africa was in Metge\u2019s heart<\/a>, and after the Dakar rally left the African continent, he helped manage a worthy successor in the form of the Africa Eco Race, which he helped organize with Jean-Louis Schlesser, another former winner. It was here we spoke Metge in 2018, in Menton (France). \u201cAh, you couldn\u2019t believe it when the Porsches arrived in the Dakar rally. All of a sudden, we were hitting 200 kph in the sand. And it felt completely safe. The 959 was much faster still. The big difference, with these sports cars, we were hitting top speeds a lot sooner. With the older 4x4s, this took a lot longer. The 911 hit 200 in the blink of an eye. It took some time to adjust, but then it was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1987, four-wheel drive Porsche 961 in Le Mans 24 Hours. Photo Porsche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Le Mans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Metge would participate six times in the Le Mans 24 Hours as well, between 1977 and 1987. Always in a Porsche, his best result came in 1982 when he ended fifth in a Porsche 935 K3 he shared with Dany Snobeck and Fran\u00e7ois Servanin. Metge was also behind the wheel of the four-wheel drive 961 \u2013 the 959 in circuit guise \u2013 in 1986 and 1987. Both times, he walked away with class victory, even if the overall results were a little disappointing. In 1976 and 1978, he won the French superproduction touring car championship in a Triumph Dolomite Sprint. In 1987, Metge won the French Porsche 944 Turbo Cup as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ren\u00e9 Metge passed away on January 3rd<\/sup> as both the Dakar and the Africa Eco Race got underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Triple Paris \u2013 Dakar winner Ren\u00e9 Metge has passed away in hospital in France. Next to his career in rally raids, Metge was also a talented circuit driver, racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours and in touring cars. Whereas Jacky Ickx was the one who led Porsche into the desert, it was Metge who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[1443,277,1444,1450,1445,1447,275,1098,119,970,353,137,138,1448,993,1442,1449,994,1446],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-10285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-africa-eco-race","tag-dakar","tag-dany-snobeck","tag-dominique-lemoine","tag-francois-servanin","tag-french-supertourisme","tag-jacky-ickx","tag-jean-louis-schlesser","tag-le-mans","tag-le-mans-24-hours","tag-paris-dakar","tag-porsche","tag-porsche-911","tag-porsche-944-turbo-cup","tag-porsche-959","tag-porsche-961","tag-range-rover","tag-rene-metge","tag-triumph-dolomite-sprint","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/HDI-12418.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10293,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10285\/revisions\/10293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10285"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fthb-sponsors&post=10285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}