VW all out for Dakar Rally win

Volkswagen is making its biggest effort yet to win the world's toughest motorsport event, the Dakar Rally, and in so doing become the first carmaker to win with a diesel-powered car.

When the flag falls in Lisbon on December 31 to mark the start of the two-week trans-Africa marathon, five TDI-powered Volkswagen Touareg 2 challengers will be in the field driven by such notables as former world rally champion Carlos Sainz, 1993 Dakar winner Bruno Saby and the only woman to have won in the Dakar event, Jutta Kleinschmidt.

The other drivers are South African Giniel de Villiers, a top-seven Dakar finisher for the past three years; American off-road racer Mark Miller; Italian woman Fabrizia Pons, who used to partner Audi rally legend Frenchwoman Michel Mouton; and Swedish woman Tina Thorner.

Volkswagen Motorsport director Kris Nissen said: "Since last year's Dakar Rally we have been preparing intensively. The focal areas are engineering, logistics and the team, and in all of these we have achieved improvements."

"The Dakar is a unique competition in every respect, and it makes the maximum demands on both people and the machine, and over an unusually long period of time at that. Our extensive tests have prepared us for these demands."

The Touareg was introduced to competition in 2004 and was immediately competitive, in Kleinschmidt's hands, winning a stage of the Dakar.

Last year, Germany's Kleinschmidt took overall third place, the first Dakar podium finish by a diesel-powered car.

Now there is a new rally weapon, the Race Touareg 2. The new car is 200mm shorter than its predecessor yet has an increased wheelbase to help improve rough-terrain handling and allow the crew greater cockpit space. The vehicle's centre of gravity has also been lowered and visibility from the cockpit enhanced.

Under the bonnet, the five-cylinder TDI power unit has been reworked to boost power to around 205kW (270bhp) and torque to 550Nm. There is a revised dry sump lubrication system and a new, two-stage turbocharging system.

The Dakar Rally will cover about 9000km through Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and Guinea before the finish in Senegal on January 15.