+ Click to Enlarge VOLKSWAGEN RACE TOUAREG 2: It's shorter overall but with a longer wheelbase, lowered centre of gravity and improved cockpit visibility.

November 22, 2005

Volkswagen is making its biggest effort yet to become the first manufacturer to win the Dakar rally with a diesel-powered car. It has entered five TDI-powered Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 cars for the 2006 event, which starts in Lisbon, Portugal on December 31.

They will be piloted by a team of world-class drivers including double World Rally champion Carlos Sainz, newly crowned Cross-Country World Cup champion Bruno Saby and Jutta Kleinschmidt, the only woman to win the Dakar Rally.

They will line up with four-time South African touring car champion Giniel de Villiers, who has finished in the top seven in the Dakar rally for the last three years, and experienced American off-road racer Mark Miller.

There are three women in the squad: Kleinschmidt's co-driver will be Fabrizia Pons, who used to partner Audi rally legend Michel Mouton, while Tina Thorner will navigate for de Villiers.

Volkswagen motorsport director Kris Nissen believes the team is ready.

"We have been preparing intensively since last year's Dakar Rally," he said. "The Dakar is unique in every respect; it makes enormous demands on both people and machines, over an unusually long period."

The Race Touareg made its competition debut in 2004, winning a stage of the Dakar rally in Kleinschmidt's hands and finishing on the podium in the Rallye d’Orient.

It dominated the world of marathon rallying in 2005; Saby won the Por Las Pampas rally in Argentina before leading a Volkswagen 1-2-3 on the Moroccan rally and a 1-2 on Turkey's Rallye d'Orient – giving him the World Cup crown with two events in hand.

Kleinschmidt also took third on the 2005 Dakar rally, the first podium finish by a diesel car in this event.

VW debuted its new Race Touareg 2 at last month's Rallye Baja Portalegre, where Kleinschmidt finished second, Sainz third on his Volkswagen debut and Saby fourth.

The new car is 200mm shorter than its predecessor but with increased wheelbase to improve rough-terrain handling and allow more interior space. Its centre of gravity has been lowered and cockpit visibility improved.

The five-cylinder TDI engine has been reworked to produce about 205kW and more than 550Nm, with a revised dry sump lubrication system, two-stage turbocharging and improved engine management.

The route for the 2006 Dakar rally will be announced later this month. It's expected to cover more than 9000km from Portugal through Spain to Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and Guinea before the finish in Senegal on 15 January.

Volkswagen has a new website with live coverage of the Dakar rally, background features and downloads.