Volkswagen hopes to score a hat trick at the Dakar Rally with race-ready rigs that are all kinds of bad-ass.
The Germans hope to take their third consecutive victory with one of four Race Touareg 3 trucks competing in the 14-day race through Argentina and Chile. The route will see 430 vehicles run flat-out more than 9,000 kilometers through deserts and over mountain passes. To say this race is grueling is like saying VW knows diesels.
Which, by the way, it's entering in Dakar.
Each purpose-built Touareg sports a 2.5-liter inline five-cylinder TDI engine. It's good for 310 horsepower and more than 442 pound-feet of torque. The engine is bolted to a sequential five-speed gearbox. The all-wheel-drive trucks have three mechanical differentials.
Mash your right foot to the floor and you'll do zero to 100 kilometers per hour in 5.9 seconds on firm ground. Top speed is approximately 190 kilometers per hour (118 mph).
The ground is rarely firm during Dakar, however, and the vehicles take a staggering amount of abuse. The Race Touareg 3 has double-wishbone suspension with two ZF Sachs shocks and springs at each corner. Suspension travel is 250 millimeters, the max allowed under the rules. Aluminum calipers with six pistons apiece clamp 320-millimeter rotors to slow these beasts.
The steel space frame is wrapped in carbon fiber bodywork that weighs around 50 kilos. The truck weighs 1,787.5 kilos ready to race. Tweaks to last year's design include improved aerodynamics and cooling through the double inlet on the roof, an improved intercooler and reduced friction in the suspension system.
VW will enter four rigs in the competition. Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz will defend their 2010 title. Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz hope to repeat their 2009 victory. Nasser Al-Attiyah and Timo Gottschalk are back after taking second last year, as are Mark Miller and Ralph Pitchford. They finished second in 2009.
The race runs Jan. 1-16.
Photos: Volkswagen
See Also:
- VW Builds the World's Coolest SUV
- Klever Kolberg Races Dakar in 2010 With Ethanol
- 10 Amazingly Awesome Rally Cars We Love
- 15 Cars We Really, Really Want to Drive
- Tell Us What You Really, Really Want to Drive
