VW Race Touareg 2

Novelty: diesel success in the Dakar Rally

Following the third place in the overall standings secured in last year's Dakar, Volkswagen improved to the runner-up position, in this year's edition of the prestigious desert event, secured by the pairing Giniel de Villiers (South Africa) and Tina Thörner (Sweden). This result also represented an extraordinary success for the innovative tuning company Spiess: for the first time in the history of the desert rally, held since 1979, a diesel powered car succeeded in finishing runner-up. The new Race Touareg 2 is equipped with a 275bhp diesel engine that was prepared for the classic desert event by the Ditzingen, Germany based company Spiess.

"It goes without saying that we are delighted with this second place for Volkswagen, secured in this year's extremely gruelling, fast and thrilling Dakar Rally. We have to admit that it was our goal to win the event, and we hat the chance and the potential to do so. But unfortunately, we didn't make use of this chance," said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. The Race Touareg 2 of Jutta Kleinschmidt/Fabrizia Pons held a promising top-five position when it had to retire due to an accident. "Compared to last year, we once again improved our result," Nissen continued. "We have made good progress in all areas - technics, team and logistics - and succeeded in putting regular winner Mitsubishi under significant pressure."

Quite obviously, the Spiess Management also was happy with the success of the rally project. "Once again, we successfully proved our company's competence," said Holger Spiess. "The diesel project developed by us turned out to be successful at first go. With the 2.5-litre common-rail diesel, we added an internationally important success to our company's history. We are proud of having coped with this demanding endurance test in the worldwide most important rally, together with Volkswagen."

More Dakar Messages [2006]

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