G Rally Team has unveiled G-ECKO, a new line of Challenger cars that will make its competition début at the 2025 Dakar Rally. The first model will be dubbed the G-ECKO CHALLENGER ONE.
G-ECKO is the successor to the OT3, a Challenger vehicle developed by Overdrive Racing that G Rally Team has been overseeing since 2021. As part of the arrangement, the team took over the rights and responsibilities for the OT3 from the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team, such as being the party whom customers would approach if they wish to race it themselves.
“We took the time to think about and analyse everything we wanted to revise and correct on the OT3,” said G Rally managing director Louis de Laminne. “Feedback from our customers was very important in this process. It’s their experience that drives us forward. We’ve now put all this into practice with the development of a new vehicle, which will also enter the Challenger category.”
The name is a play on “gecko”, a lizard that Grégoire de Mévius used to have a decal of on his rally cars. The “G”—like in G Rally Team—is emphasised as a nod to the family’s first names, with Grégoire’s sons and team owners Ghislain and Guillaume de Mévius being a case in point, while “-ECKO” is a pun for “& Co.”
“We’re a team where everyone has their place,” Guillaume explained. “We live things together. At the races, our mechanics work alongside our customers, and everyone plays an important role. We take things seriously, with professionalism, but we make sure we do it in a friendly, family way.”
Ghislain is currently second in the FIA World Baja Cup’s Challenger standings with a class win at Baja Poland, coming off a 2023 campaign in which he narrowly lost the European Baja Cup T3 title on a tiebreaker. João Dias, who beat him for that championship, became an OT3 driver for the 2024 season as part of a partnership between Santag Racing and G Rally Team. Although Guillaume races a Mini in the Ultimate class, the OT3 also sees action in the World Rally-Raid Championship; seven of them are entered at this week’s Rallye du Maroc, where G-ECKO was unveiled.
Production and testing of the Challenger One will take place once the team returns from Morocco. A full reveal is planned for late November, while the 2025 Dakar Rally is scheduled for 3–17 January.
