Team X-raid

Back in 2002, Sven Quandt founded the X-raid GmbH in Trebur near Frankfurt/Main. The goal: to enhance a production vehicle and turn it into a high-performance racing car that had got what it took to successfully compete in rally raids.

The team quickly demonstrated its potential: in May 2002, the X-raid BMW X5 CC was tested for the very first time and just a few months later, in summer, it celebrated its maiden victory courtesy of Belgian Gregoire de Mevius who won the Baja Germany. And the next major success followed before long: the BMW X5CC became the first BMW to win the diesel category of the ‘Dakar’, the most gruelling cross-country rally in the world. Then, in 2004, Khalifa al Mutaiwei gave X-raid the overall win in the ‘FIA Cross Country World Cup’.

Two years later, in 2006, X-raid developed a new racing car, based on the BMW X3: the BMW X3 CC. And just as its predecessor, the X3 CC quickly proved to be competitive. In 2008, Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah won both the ‘FIA Cross Country World Cup’ and the ‘FIA Cup for Cross Country Bajas’, at the wheel of the vehicle designed and entered by the Trebur based team. In addition, Filipe Campos secured the 2008 Portuguese Championship with an X3 CC. In 2009, both the Portuguese Championship – once again courtesy of Filipe Campos – and the World Cup title were defended, with French cross-country ace Guerlain Chicherit following the footsteps of Nasser Al-Attiyah as World Cup winner.
 
In the 2010 and 2011 editions of the Dakar Rally, Stéphane Peterhansel finished fourth in the overall ranking while Russian Leonid Novitskiy and his German co-driver Andreas Schulz gave X-raid the fourth consecutive overall win in the Cross Country World Cup, in 2011.
 
Today, the company employs staff and drivers from all over the world, for instance from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, France, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Germany. In late 2010, this international team made for a minor sensation: with just a few weeks to go to the start of the 2011 Dakar, X-raid caused a true stir by launching the MINI All4Racing. Within just 90 days, the Trebur based squad had designed a competitive Dakar contender based on the MINI Countryman.
The first MINI All4 Racing win was secured by French pairing Stéphane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, held in April, 2011. In 2012, X-raid contested the Dakar held in South America with five MINI All4 Racing and three BMW X3CC rally vehicles. All the cars made it to the finish in Peru’s capital, Lima – and Team X-raid celebrated the biggest success in its history to date: Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret gave the Trebur based squad its first Dakar win, with Nani Roma and Michel Périn adding to the success by finishing second, thus making for a one-two.