It might share as much in common with Volkswagen’s road-going Touareg as abstinence and the porn industry but the all-new Touareg Race 3 is ready to ravage the Atacama desert in the upcoming Dakar Rally.
Similar to the previous two race versions, pretty much the headlights and grille were retained with the rest of the SUV chopped, modded, redesigned or plain thrown out. A steel space-frame chassis now holds the carbon fiber and Kevlar body together.
Under the hood upfront is a twin-turbocharged 2.5-liter TDI oil burner pushing 300hp and 599Nm of torque through a ZF-Sachs five-speed sequential box paired to a triple plate ceramic clutch that sees the century mark eclipsed in 6.1-seconds and top speed stands at 188km/h.
Sending all that torque to all four wheels are three limited-slip differentials with a high-travel suspension setup doing its best to keep the tyres to the ground. Furthermore, the engine has been optimized for the 4.5km elevation changes so that performance won’t falter at higher altitudes where oxygen is lacking.
Source: Jalopnik
