Trick Tuaregs tackle the desert - Aprilia set sights on rally success at Africa Eco Race

Following their increasing success in MotoGP, Aprilia have stepped up their involvement in desert rallies with this – the latest factory racing version of their parallel twin Tuareg 660 adventure bike.

Two examples of the works machine were entered into the 15th Africa Eco Race, which started on December 30 and finishes on January 14.

The race represents the latest stage in Aprilia’s ‘Back to Africa’ project announced a year ago to take the Italian brand back to the big African rally raid events following a series of successful preliminary competitions.

It could also suggest that a more rugged version of the Tuareg 660 road bike is on the way, which would line up alongside the £10,900 Yamaha Ténéré 700 Extreme, and £14,495 Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro.  

The bike has been developed by the Aprilia Racing department in close collaboration with specialists GCorse, the company set up by former Ducati MotoGP test rider Vittoriano Guareschi and his brother Gianfranco.

The machine debuted early last year in the Italian Motorally G-1000 class championship with factory riders Jacopo Cerutti and Francesco Montanari and saw Cerutti dominate six of the eight rounds with Montanari coming third. At its first international race in September 2023, the Transanatolia Rally, Cerutti won one leg and finished the event third overall.

Now the team have headed into Africa for the first time, passing many of the locations of the historic Dakar Rally and reminding of Aprilia’s last participation between 2010 and 2012 (when they became the last Italian brand to win a Dakar stage).

While the race bikes themselves are based heavily on the production Tuareg twin, there are a number of significant upgrades – although with it being a competition machine few details have been released.

The chassis and 659cc twin have been reworked, a supplementary fuel tank added to increase range, and there’s now Öhlins suspension – likely offering more travel and boosting ground clearance to assist with the challenging North African terrain.

Elsewhere, a complete SC Project exhaust in titanium, and a specific Sprint Filter have also been a applied, with the standard colour TFT dash making way for a rally spec ‘road book’ console.

Following a win on the second stage, Cerutti said: “We arrived on the dunes – always a beautiful landscape – followed by other truly difficult sections with plenty of challenging bumps, but even in these conditions, the bike gave me outstanding feel and feedback”.