It isn’t recommended that a complete amateur compete in the Dakar Rally, the off-road endurance competition in which racers have traversed Paris, Argentina, and now Saudi Arabia in the vehicle of their choosing. The landscape is beautiful and punishing by design: Think racing a motocross bike down a sand dune, then up a literal mountain, and continuing to do that for about two weeks. The event has averaged more than a death a year since it started in 1978.
But for a price starting around $1.2 million, the luxury-tourism agency Momentum will set a client up with a custom Land Rover and fly them out to the desert, providing logistics support and driver training to help them — at least theoretically — win the glory and the race’s relatively paltry cash prizes.
“Our clients are looking for an authentic, inspirational experience,” Momentum’s founder, Matthew Robertson,in 2020. “Which is exactly what we offer.” The five people that are likely running out of air aboard the