No, with the Touareg, a year earlier presented, it really has not much in common. And whoever thought, for the Dakar Rally is needed particularly much engine power, will be disappointed here. But a lot of torque and low fuel consumption appear to be important, therefore the diesel engine with the smallest displacement from the Touareg program.

But the was not installed front, but for reasons of weight distribution for example when 'flying' (see videos) in the middle between the two front seats. The wheelbase was not that much smaller than case of the series-Touareg, but well the length of the vehicle because of as low as possible angles of driving slope. The length was then reduced again by 20 centimetres in the Race Touareg II from 2006, but the performance increased by 18 kW (25 hp) and the torque by more than 100 Nm.

Most of the space was occupied by the front charge air cooler while the engine cooler was installed rear and was supplied through the air inlet above the roof. The all-wheel was permanently via a total of three viscous locks, but could be mechanically bypassed at the center differential in an emergency. The four driving shafts are identical. Since the minimum weight was undermatched despite reinforcements, at least two and a maximum of four spare wheels could be taken with.

But the special feature of this vehicle is the chassis. Not in principle, but seen from the dimensioning. Double wishbones are indeed well known, but not this one, which allow an extreme spring stroke. With conventional this would be punished with enormous changes of the track gauge. The wishbones are considerably longer at the Race Touareg. Here disturbs no engine because it was placed between the axles. The construction was obviously completed by twice spring struts, protected against desert sand.



The Race Touareg III from 2010 had with equal external dimensions 228 kW (310 HP). A civilian version of it was presented at the Qatar Motor Show 2011. The second show car is shown here above. Appropriate for an emirate on the Persian Gulf, it's refined in large parts with 24 carat gold. It has on board a 265 kW (360 HP) V8 petrol engine. There was also a Race Touareg with the modified V12 of the Audi R10 TDI, first used at the Baja 1000 in Mexico 2008. 05/15