KEY POINTS:
Next year's Dakar Rally promises to be the most demanding test yet for the Volkswagen Motorsport team, which has just finished development of the four Touareg models it will enter in the 9000km event.
For the first time in the event's history, the 2009 race takes place across the South American continent. The 2008 race was cancelled at the last minute in January because of fears of terrorist attacks in North Africa.
The 2009 race starts on January 3 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There will be 15 stages in the journey across the continent to Chile and back again to Buenos Aires.
The stages include passage through the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world with the highest dune fields, with two crossings of the Andes at altitudes of up to 4600 metres.
In preparation for the conditions, VW has put man and machine through exhaustive tests.
The drivers have completed altitude training in the French Alps, and the 2.5-litre TDI diesel engines have done thousands of kilometres of extensive durability testing in an environment chamber, designed to simulate extreme altitudes.
The four factory-fielded Touareg 2 models will be piloted by Spaniard Carlos Sainz and his French navigator Michel Perlin; Giniel de Villiers (South Africa) and Dirk von Zitzewith (Germany); Mark Miller (USA) and Ralph Pitchford (South Africa) and Dieter Depping partnered with fellow German Timo Gottschalk.
The vehicles were built at VW Motorsport's headquarters in Hanover, Germany. They will be trucked from Hanover to Le Havre for scrutineering late next month before being shipped to Buenos Aires.
