Filed under: Diesel, Volkswagen, LA Auto Show
Seriously, nobody in their right mind is going to suggest that racing across the Baja desert for about a thousand miles in any vehicle qualifies as green, but it takes place each and every year in Southern California and Mexico anyway. This being the case, Volkswagen is planning to tackle this year’s Baja event at the very highest level, the Trophy Truck class, with a brand-new racer that they loosely refer to as a Touareg. If you are going to be racing across the desert in anything, it may as well be powered by a clean 5.5 liter V-12 TDI Twin Turbo diesel engine with 550 horsepower and 625 lbs.-ft. of torque, right? After taking a good long look at the truck in person, we’ve come to the conclusion it is most definitely impressive and imposing. See our live pics below. Plus, did we mention the clean diesel?
Gallery: LA 2008: Race Touareg 2
Photos Copyright (C)2008 Jeremy Korzeniewski and Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.
LA 2008: Volkswagen’s imposing Touareg TDI Trophy Truck originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.





Although the three-wheeled configuration allows them to classify it as a motorcycle and thus avoid some of the regulatory scrutiny involved with selling cars with four tires, the vehicle is said to have been designed with safety in mind. In addition to the roll bar, side-impact beams and crumple zones, it also comes equipped with two airbags. It’s powered by a one liter 3 cylinder gas engine to get you going and disc brakes to make you stop. Choosing the available automatic transmission ups the price by $1,000 or you can stick with the 5-speed and pay only $13,995. Expected to be available early 2009, the company is taking reservations now.

