Transferred from Africa by the threat of terrorism, the Dakar Rally starts on Friday with a symbolic drive in Argentina’s capital before heading out on an adventure that will also take in Chile.

The first Dakar Rally to furrow the soil of South America will last 14 stages and 9,574 kilometres before it rolls back into Buenos Aires on January 18.

The rally crosses the Pampas, heads into Patagonia, arrives at the Andes next Thursday, drives into Chile the following day, cruises up alongside the Pacific for five days including a loop in the Atacama Desert, then heads back to the start.

“The drivers will discover a new territory, another landscape, but they are imbued with the same spirit of competition and adventure,” rally director Etienne Levigne said.

The 2008 race was cancelled because of security fears after four French tourists and three Mauritanian soldiers were killed before the start. The French government warned of a terrorist threat with links to al-Qaida, and the race was cancelled for the first time in its 30-year history.

But Levigne promised it would race again, and moved it to South America with the hope of returning to Dakar in 2011 or 2012.

With scrutineering completed on Thursday, Dakar’s South American version included an unofficial 530 vehicles made up of 82 trucks, 188 cars, 30 quad bikes and 230 motorcycles, nearly all of them shipped from Europe.

Many of the competitors are familiar. As in recent years, the car race was expected to be a showdown between the Mitsubishis led by French great Stephane Peterhansel and the Volkswagens by two-time world rally champion Carlos Sainz.

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