Volkswagen Touareg TDI Trophy Truck To Be Unveiled In LA

Volkswagen has chosen the upcoming Los Angeles Motor Show to unveil its Race Touareg TDI Trophy Truck. The Touareg will be the first turbo-diesel to compete in the Trophy Truck class of the SCORE sponsored Baja 1000 dessert race, the pinnacle of extreme off-road racing.

The 5.5-litre TDI V12 will produce over 410kWs of power and a massive 848Nms of gut-wrenching torque, mandatory when you consider the Touareg's portly 2.5-tonne kerb weight.

It's a Touareg by name but the donor vehicle has undergone extensive modifications to allow it to traverse - at speed - one of the earth's harshest environments. Custom double A-arms and a four-link rear suspension setup provide the Touareg with around 63cms of travel up front and over 76cms at the rear.

Massive 37-inch BFGoodrich Baja KRT off-road tyres will be fitted along with Fox Racing shocks and Eibach coils. Besides dealing with the bumps, the task is to provide enough grip to get all that power down.

The Baja event, covering 1000 miles along Mexico's Baja Peninsula, is to dirt lovers what the Bathurst 1000 is to V8 fans. A solid performance from the Volkswagen entry certainly won't hurt the Touareg's appeal in dealerships. Heck, we'd be in there right now if that V12 diesel was available from the factory... (whatzit cost again?)