Budapest–Bamako
Bamako Extreme · Mohács → Abidjan
A one-off edition of the world's largest amateur rally, billed by its organisers as longer and more demanding than any previous Budapest-Bamako. Eleven thousand kilometres, twenty-two days, and a finish line on the Gulf of Guinea.
- Distance
- 11,000km
- Duration
- 22days
- Field cap
- 150teams
Two continents, five African countries, one night's notice.
- Morocco
- Mauritania
- Senegal
- Guinea
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Europe
- Morning start from Mohács, Hungary, then south to the ferry ports.
- The crossing
- Ferry to Tangier — from Genoa, or the shorter Algeciras hop.
- Africa
- Tangier to Abidjan through five countries, desert to rainforest.
THE DAILY STAGE WILL BE RELEASED ONLY THE EVENING BEFORE EACH STAGE.
Previous Budapest-Bamako entrants got the full itinerary weeks ahead. Not this time. Each evening, teams download the next day’s stage — and the overnight stop is only announced the night before, so nobody can book ahead.
- Start date
- Not yet announced
- Finish date
- Not yet announced
- Daily stages
- Released the evening before — by design
- Overnight stops
- Announced the night before — by design
We are not going to guess at these. You cannot plan this rally in advance, and that is the point — 500–600km a day, and you find out where you are sleeping the evening before.
Sahara at one end, rainforest at the other — and the rainforest is new ground for the Budapest-Bamako, flagged by the organisers as a first for the event. This edition is about 2,000km longer and a week longer than a classic Bamako.
It is not a race in the way you think it is.
“Speed is not a deciding factor.”
Budapest-Bamako, official event FAQ
Navigation, not lap times
In racing category participants have to complete daily stages from one camp to another. Along the road they will have to find geo-challenges, which are navigational points, usually given by GPS coordinates. Those points have to be visited, photographed and entered on a daily race sheet. Teams collect points for completing stages and reaching the geo-points — and lose them for speeding through residential areas.
Minimal assistance
No service park waiting at the end of the stage. Whatever breaks, the crew fixes — with what they carried in, on whatever ground they stopped on. Twenty-two days of that is a very different discipline to a weekend rally in the Snowies.
ANYONE. BY ANYTHING. BY ANY MEANS.
Andrew G. Szabo, founder — unchanged since 2005
Twenty years of driving to West Africa.
Founded in 2005 as an affordable answer to the Paris-Dakar, the Budapest-Bamako has grown into what Marathon Rally Magazine calls the world's largest amateur rally, and Daily News Hungary calls Africa's largest charity rally. Entry is deliberately open: if a vehicle is street legal, it can enter.
The 2027 field is capped at 150 teams. Entries opened on 20 April 2026 and are now closed.
The aid caravan
It is a charity rally as much as a competition — the rally delivers €700,000–900,000 of aid to West Africa each year, according to the organisers.
There is no official charity truck in 2027. After years of shipping donated goods south, the organisers found too much of it arrived unusable. The money that went on freight now goes into buying supplies locally instead — water and tree-planting projects, school supplies in Senegal and Guinea, solar panels and school furniture in Labé.
A 2004 Subaru Forester.
Bought. Build starting.
Not one of the rally cars — a separate car bought for this, going up on a lift kit and being built from scratch as a raid vehicle. Lifted, and prepared for 500–600km a day across the Sahara and out the other side.
Eleven thousand kilometres to the Gulf of Guinea asks a very different question of a car than a gravel weekend does — no service park, no chase truck, and whatever breaks gets fixed with what we carried in. The whole build gets filmed from here.
From the shed to the Gulf of Guinea.
The whole run-up gets filmed — choosing the car, building it, shipping it, and then twenty-two days of whatever Africa decides to do about it.
A continent is a long time to carry a logo.
Twenty-two days, eleven thousand kilometres and two continents, documented start to finish for an audience that watches every round. If your brand belongs on a car crossing West Africa, we should talk.
Talk to us about 2027michael.chora@shakewellracing.com
Event details per budapestbamako.org · correct as at July 2026