Michel Périn is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 rally navigator.

Biography

He started racing in 1977. In 1984 he turned professional as copilot of François Chatriot, and finished second in the French Rally Championship, championship that he would win in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

He changed to offroad rally racing in 1992, to the side of Pierre Lartigue, winning the Dakar Rally

Dakar Rally

The Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid type of off-road automobile race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation...

 in 1994

1994 Dakar Rally

1994 Dakar Rally also known as the 1994 Paris-Dakar Rally was the 16th running of the Dakar Rally event. The route was from Paris to Dakar and back to Paris. Pierre Lartigue won the rally while Edi Orioli won his third motorcycle title....

, 1995

1995 Dakar Rally

1995 Dakar Rally also known as the 1995 Paris-Dakar Rally was the 17th running of the Dakar Rally event. The race began outside France for the first time, at Grenada in Spain. Pierre Lartigue won the car class for the second year in succession and Stephane Peterhansel won his fourth motorcycle title....

 and 1996

1996 Dakar Rally

1996 Dakar Rally also known as the 1996 Paris-Dakar Rally was the 18th running of the Dakar Rally event. Pierre Lartigue won the car class for the third year in succession and Edi Orioli won his fourth motorcycle title....

. He also achieved multiple victories and podium finishes in many of the most important offroad races, including Rally of Tunisia, Atlas Rally, Baja Italy, Spanish Baja

Spanish Baja

The Spanish Baja is a Rally Raid event held in the region of Aragon in northern Spain.This event was launched in 1983, based on the popularity of the African Adventure rallies such as the Paris Dakar and the Pharaons Rally...

 and Baja Portugal. From 1993 to 1996, he won the FIA Cross Country World Cup.

In 1997 and 1998 he switched again to rally, participating in the French Rally Championship with the driver Patrick Magaud.

He ended his career at the end of 1998, turning into team manager of the motorsport division of Citroën

Citroën

Citroën is a major French automobile manufacturer, part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group.Founded in 1919 by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën , Citroën was the first mass-production car company outside the USA and pioneered the modern concept of creating a sales and services network that...

. Six years later, he returned in 2004, sharing cockpit with Guerlain Chicherit

Guerlain Chicherit

Guerlain Chicherit is a French rally driver and a professional skier, four times world champion in freeriding .-Biography:...

. In 2005, he signed for the Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

 Motorsport Team. Being Bruno Saby

Bruno Saby

Bruno Saby is a rally driver from France.In 1981, Saby became French Rally Champion in a Renault 5 Turbo. He drove for the works teams of Renault, Peugeot, Volkswagen and Lancia during his career in the World Rally Championship...

's codriver, he won the FIA Cross Country World Cup for 5th time in his career, including victories on Rally of Morocco

Rallye du Maroc

The Rallye du Maroc was a marathon rally, similar to the Safari Rally. It was first run in 1934, and held intermittently until 1988. Established by the Royal Automobile Club of Morocco, it is one of the more difficult automotive rallies...

 and Rallye d'Orient, and a fifth place in the Dakar Rally

2005 Dakar Rally

2005 Dakar Rally also known as the 2005 Paris-Dakar Rally was the 27th running of the Dakar Rally event. The 2005 event was 5,565 miles long, began in Barcelona on 31 December 2004 and passed through Morocco, Mauritania and Mali before ending at Dakar in Senegal on 16 January 2005. The course was...

. In 2007, riding with Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz Cenamor is a Spanish rally driver. He won the World Rally Championship drivers' title with Toyota in 1990 and 1992, and finished runner-up four times...

, he won again the Cross Country World Cup, after winning the Rally Transibérico and finishing second in the Rally of Morocco and the UAE Desert Challenge. They were 9th in the final classification of the Dakar Rally

2007 Dakar Rally

The 2007 Dakar Rally was the 29th running of the event. It started in Lisbon, Portugal on 6 January and ran through Europe and Africa until 21 January 2007.-Entrants:...

, after suffering a breakdown. In 2008, he won the Central Europe Rally

Central Europe Rally

The Central Europe Rally was a rally-raid endurance race held in Romania and Hungary. It was held in 2008 as a replacement for the canceled 2008 Dakar Rally...

. In the 2009 Dakar Rally

2009 Dakar Rally

The 2009 Dakar Rally was the 30th running of the Dakar Rally. In addition to motorcycle, automobile, and truck categories, a separate quad class was added for the first time. The race began on January 3, 2009, and took place across Argentina and Chile...

, after leading the classification for several days, he and Sainz suffered an accident because of the lack of documentation in the roadbook

Roadbook

A roadbook is a diagrammatic book typically used by rally co-drivers and overland travelers to navigate across uncertain terrain. Usually, the roadbook consists of several pages of tulip-diagrams, GPS co-ordinates and written instructions to assist in navigation....

. Périn broke his arm, and the team was forced to abandon the race.

In 2009, he was contracted by BMW

BMW

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

 as codriver of Nani Roma

Nani Roma

Nani Roma, full name Joan Roma Cararach, is a rally racing driver from Folgueroles, a small village in Barcelona, Spain. He won the Dakar Rally riding a motorcycle in 2004. Since then he has entered driving a car.-Honours:...

 in a BMW X3

BMW X3

The BMW X3 is a compact crossover SUV marketed by the German automaker BMW, based on the BMW 3-Series automobile platform, and now in its second generation. BMW designed the X3 in conjunction with Magna Steyr of Graz, Austria — who manufactured all X3s under contract to BMW for the first...

, winning the Baja Spain that year. In the 2010 Dakar Rally

2010 Dakar Rally

The 2010 Dakar Rally was the 31st running of the event. It was held in South America for the second successive time, and ran from 1 to 16 January...

, they accomplished a great start, winning the first stage, but after two accidents, they had to abandon in third stage.

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