he restores old cars and becomes co-driver at the Dakar Classic

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From Friday January 3 to Friday January 17, 2025the Dakar rally is organized in Saudi Arabia. A competition in which Jérémy Athimon, manager of the Nantes Prestige Autos garage, specialized in Porsche restoration, in Thouaré-sur-Loire, takes part.

At 37 years old, the car enthusiast will participate in his fifth Dakar in the Dakar Classic category. This year, Jérémy Athimon is hired as co-driver alongside Axel Berrier. Encounter.

Rally-raid and Porsche

Originally from Nort-sur-Erdre, Jérémy discovered the automotive world as an autodidact. In motorcycle mechanic apprenticeship, he is rewarded as best apprentice in France in 2007.

At 16, the mechanic discovered a Porsche in a barn and fell under the spell of the German car. Jérémy buys the wreck of the vehicle and restores it.

Passionate about vehicle restoration, Jérémy meets a private collector, owner of 55 cars. An interaction that changes the professional life of the Ligerian. “Randomly he was looking for a part in a motorcycle store and I told him that my dream was to set up my old car garage. »

Jérémy then moved in with Prestige Auto in March 2013 where he started with a “very eclectic collection” with Rolls, Porsches and Ferraris. The garage then turns towards the PorscheJérémy’s “heart mark”.

At the same time, the mechanic has another passion: quad rally-raids. “Every year I went with a friend to Morocco to tour the country, without assistance, without anything,” says the Ligerien.

One day, the Porsche lover decides to combine his two passions by transforming a Ladybug in a rally-raid car. Vehicle with which Jérémy will participate in a race in Morocco.

First participations in the Dakar and car restorations

In Morocco, Jérémy is spotted by a race driver. In 2020, the latter asked him to make a car for the new category at the Dakar: the Dakar Classicbringing together vehicles built before 2000.

“The driver had recovered a Buggy which had done the first Paris Dakar in 1979. The car had to be rebuilt because it had been abandoned in a uranium mine in Niger,” remembers the native of Nort-sur-Erdre.

In a few months, Jérémy and his team “refurbished” the Buggy before sending it for the January 2021 race, won by the crew.

Piqued, Jérémy decides to do a Porsche for the Dakar Classic 2022 to put it in the hands of the same pilot. “He told me ok (sic) I would like to leave with your Porsche, however you come as co-pilot”, smiles the mechanic.

A new adventure for Jérémy who is training by taking internships and classes. For his first participation, he finishes at 9^e place in the general classification.

The co-driver will start again in 2023 with a Swiss driver and will obtain his best result at the Dakar Classic with an 8^e position.

Jérémy’s garage is participating in the Dakar by restoring several vehicles. In 2024 Nantes Prestige Autos sent three cars (two 959s and a Martini) to Saudi Arabia.

This year, Jérémy has just taken a new car out of his garage: a Porsche 964 for Axel Berrier, based in Dubai. Once again the Nantes resident will be the co-pilot.

For the 2025 edition, Nantes Prestige Autos is entering two cars: a 964 Dakar and an old 959.

“The Dakar is a race of regularity”

To prepare for the 2025 edition, Jérémy went to Morocco last September to test the car and the crew. Like his other participations in the Dakar, he will be concerned about his vehicle.

“The problem is that I think too much about the car so I’m too psychotic (sic) about the slightest noise. I don’t let myself go enough as a co-driver,” admits Jérémy.

In five participations, four of which as co-driver, the garage manager has experienced adventures on the roads of the Dakar.

In 2023, there were big storms in Saudi Arabia. In a few minutes, we were surrounded by water and therefore we had crossed small rivers where there was a meter of water. We couldn’t prevent the car from taking on water. I was plugging holes with my fingers, because the water was coming up, so it wouldn’t flood the inside, but it didn’t. I tried to mop it up with my hood but in the end the car broke down. We were towed for 400 km behind a competitor’s 4×4.

For the co-driver, patience and calm are the best allies in this rally-raid “where anything can happen”. “The race lasts 14 days, so the goal is to get to the end with the car. The Dakar is a race of regularity. »

Having fallen by chance into the automotive world and arriving in the Dakar world through a combination of circumstances, Jérémy Athimon now cannot see his life without the rally-raid.

“The Dakar is timeless. As some say: the hardest part isn’t the Dakar, it’s not going back. »

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