Dakar VW Touaregs entered in the Baja 500!!

[Chase 2]

Anyone who has ever met Mark, knows that he doesn't go for hype, nor show, Mark races to win. Mark’s record in Baja shows that he has figured out what it takes to win in Baja. I also think that over the last couple of years, he has figured out how the Touareg performs. I don’t think that there is any way he would ever consider suggesting to VW that they should come race in Baja if he wasn’t convinced he could win overall in the Touareg.

I am really excited to get to see the Touareg in action. I am also really excited to see how well Giniel De Villiers adapts to Baja after prerunning and coaching from Mark on how to give a love tap.

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[spalind]

To me it would be vastly hypocritical for the American offroad racing public to stick their noses in the air and say "Nope, no way those stinky Frenchmen, their German rally cars and their hired American gun can come over here and compete to win in OUR race...." Isn't this the same attitude and POV that we rail against the Euros and the FIA for having?? As a sport the desert racing community should embrace the Touregs and the VW teams with open arms as more competition and more exposure--be it here in the U.S. or over in Europe--can only help the sport....

[TJERGENSEN]

looking at the pictures with the body off. did they get a wavier for tube size. per the new rules. looks like 1-1/2.? i wonder why they would want to go in front of the class 1's .

[MARK]

If the top 10 Trophys, than the top 10 class ones go off the line first. Than the rest of the trophys go, than the two VW's, Richard Boyle will be the first 1 car to come up on th VW's. In my opinion Richard will have to work thru a few slower Trophys before he gets to the VW's but it all depends on the course layout.

[Samco Fab]

Somebody needs to add "El Matador" to the VDub baja starting list, he sure had a ton of stage wins this year in the Tourag.

The 500 suits those cars well. They are more sorted out than all but a few of the local teams, and can run nearly wide open all day with very very proven cars that probably only need to stop once for fuel. They probably handle much better than almost all of the unlimiteds, look at the first few stages of the Dakar this year, Robby lost time in the tight stuff with his very American long travel Monster. The Drivers are on par with the best local drivers...well one is a local The Tourags also have very high top speeds.

There only big disadvantage is really rough terrain, but there is not a ton of that at the 500. We must watch out for there technology here on our turf, just as they must watch out for our machines when they are sent to there battlefield. Go Mark Miller!

I think they will kick some butt, and finish well, it is awesome to see them here! I cant wait to see them in action! I am sure they will be lookin out for the Land Shark swimming up behind them

[EdgeHost]

Ya,It was great. We had them on the show last night talking about it,The phones exploded!.First of all great guys,Super nice.I am personally very exited to see this happen and I think they will do very well.I wish them the best.

[zjohnson]

I think your comments are silly. First of all, who won the Baja 500 overall the last 2 years? Trophy Trucks (2005 - Robby Gordon, 2006 - Ragland/Collins. And what makes you think they are going to get nerfed any more than they will be doing the nerfing?

My bad, my memory betrayed me, just checked some of the past years results and I thought the 1 cars did a lot better than the results.

About the nerfing, I hope these vw's are faster on the TT's on the graded roads, they should be, but even fast cars can get nerfed by "rabbits." Plus, what happens when they hit the rough sections, large velocity differences, dust, etc . . .

Go Mark . . .

[Yumaoffroad]

RG needs to bring the H2 for this race for sure with out that stinky restrictor

[maxyedor]

To me it would be vastly hypocritical for the American offroad racing public to stick their noses in the air and say "Nope, no way those stinky Frenchmen, their German rally cars and their hired American gun can come over here and compete to win in OUR race...." Isn't this the same attitude and POV that we rail against the Euros and the FIA for having?? As a sport the desert racing community should embrace the Touregs and the VW teams with open arms as more competition and more exposure--be it here in the U.S. or over in Europe--can only help the sport....

I am very interested to see how they do also, but unless there has been some drastic changes done to them for Baja, I'm not expecting them to hang with the fast trucks. Dakar and Baja are two very different races that require very, verydifferent cars/trucks. Look at the RG H3 and it's evolution, they first entered Dakar with some knowledge, but no first hand experience in Africa, they had tons of experience in Baja, but most of it didn't translate over. I would imagine that the VW team has taken that into account, and hopefully they have taken the time to redesign the car, and pre-run enough to get it dialed in, otherwise the 500 will likely be a learning experience, more than a competative race.

I would like to see them throw a few dollars at a Stock mini class Toureg. If you want to prove what a truck is capable of, that's how you do it. The race Toureg that the team runs in Dakar is about as close to a production Toureg as Phluger's TT is to a normal Silverado.

[retroblazer]

Anybody have some specs on the VW's, like wheel base and track width and weight? I saw the engine output at 285 hp, but what about peak torque?