January’s Dakar Rally promises to be
the toughest yet for the Volkswagen works team and its squad of TDI-powered
Race Touaregs, for the 30th running of the world’s toughest
motorsport event will be longer and more arduous than ever.
Special stage distance has been
lengthened by a third over last year, to 5,736 km (3,562 miles),
with the treacherous sand dunes of Mauritania set to provide much of
the drama during the 16-day trek from Lisbon, Portugal, to the
Senegalese capital of Dakar.
Volkswagen will field four works
cars – for Spaniard Carlos Sainz, South African Giniel de Villiers,
Germany’s Dieter Depping and American Mark Miller – while a fifth
Race Touareg will be run by customer team Lagos and driven by
Portugal’s Carlos Sousa. Volkswagen is bidding to become the first
manufacturer to win the legendary classic with a diesel car.
Newly crowned FIA Cross-Country
Rally World Champion Sainz says the 2008 Dakar will be his most
arduous yet: ‘It will be longer, tougher and more difficult. We
expect lots of sand dunes and there will be two cross-country legs
after which we will be allowed no assistance from mechanics.’
Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris
Nissen added: ‘At almost 6,000 timed kilometres we are in for a very
long event, and many days will be spent in the dunes of Mauritania.
It will be a great challenge but also a great strain: the drivers
and co-drivers will be spending many hours in the cars on the long
stages, which means the team will not be able to start work on the
cars until late in the evening.’
He believes that the team has a
good chance of success following recent tests and promising results
in the UAE Desert Challenge in early November, in which Volkswagens
finished second and third: ‘We drove a lot on sand on this event and
it confirmed that we have achieved notable improvements on this type
of terrain.’
‘In Mauritania the rally will
return to locations that have not been used on the rally for more
than a decade,’ said Dirk von Zitzewitz, who will co-drive for de
Villiers. ‘The organisers have announced a number of so-called erg
crossings - sand stages that have not previously been driven - and
the famous Nega pass, near Kiffa, as special challenges. More than
once in the past the outcome of the rally was decided on such types
of stage.’
The Volkswagen team’s Race Touaregs,
powered by 2.5-litre TDI engines delivering 280 PS, won ten of the
2007 Dakar’s 14 special stages but failed to prevent Mitsubishi
claiming a seventh successive overall victory. The Mitsubishi team,
led by three-time victor Stéphane Peterhansel, is likely to be
Volkswagen’s chief opposition once more. Volkswagen last won the
Dakar in 1980, when Swede Freddy Kottulinsky drove his Iltis to
victory.
The Dakar Rally gets underway on 5
January.
Volkswagen Race Touareg 2
Technical specification
Engine Five-cylinder ‘in-line’ TDI
diesel engine, two-stage supercharging system with turbochargers and
intercooler located longitudinally behind the front suspension
Cubic capacity 2,500 cc
Power approx 206 kW (280 PS)
Torque over 450 lbs ft
Air intake restrictor 38 mm (FIA/ASO regulation)
Engine management Bosch
Gearbox Longitudinally mounted five-speed
sequential race gearbox
Final drive Permanent four-wheel drive,
three mechanical differentials with viscous locking
Clutch Hydraulically operated ZF Sachs
three-plate ceramic clutch
Suspension front & rear Double
wishbone, two ZF Sachs dampers with springs per wheel
Steering Servo assisted rack and pinion
steering
Brake system Front and rear ventilated disc brakes
(320 mm diameter), aluminium brake calipers (six piston front and
rear)
Wheels 7.2 x 16 inch
Tyres BF Goodrich 235-85/16
Chassis/bodywork Steel
space frame, two-door carbon-fibre composite bodywork
Length/width/height
4171/1996/1762 mm
Track width 1750 mm front/rear
Wheelbase 2820 mm
Minimum weight 1787.5 kg
