World Touring Car Championship team-mates Yvan Muller and Tiago Monteiro are to take on a new challenge after signing up to contest next months Lisbon-Dakar Rally.

Frenchman Muller took part for the first time in the infamous raid last season, making it to the end in 22nd position at the wheel of a Nissan Pickup he shared with three-time winner and fellow countryman René Metge.

For the 2008 event, which will start from Lisbon on January 5 and arrive in Dakar on January 20 after 6,000 km of special stages, the WTCC runner-up has joined Philippe Gache's team and will drive a single-seater SMG buggy powered by a 250bhp 6-cylinder boxer Porsche engine, built by Gache and conceived together with Jean-Louis Schlesser. The team will run five buggies, including Muller's and Monteiro's.

"This is another step in my apprenticeship in rally-raids," Muller said. "I believe that learning to manage at the same time both navigation and driving is the best school in this category. Obviously this is not the most comfortable choice, but is a gamble. I really wish to invest on this programme and I'm ready to suffer to be successful."