AIMS: Volkswagen debuts hot oiler
Touareg's rock-flinging thunderer picks up an extra hundred Nm of torque and hot hatch looksVolkswagen Australia scored a coup at AIMS -- the world debut of its fastest ever SUV and the most powerful production Touareg yet. And it's a diesel!
VW boss Jutta Dierks pulled the covers off the R50 Touareg -- a fettled and fattened version of the Touareg V10 TDI. VW's first-ever Australian world debut, the honour reflects the growing stocks of the Aussie operation at its Wolfsburg head office.
VW's R models are performance flagships for the brand. The R32 Golf was the first current generation R-badged model to make it Down Under. The R50 will join it early in 2008. Later in the year the R36 Passat will also arrive.
Specifications released for the R50 Touareg indicate that it will eclipse the standard V10's 0-100km/h acceleration time by 0.6 of a second. Call it 6.8sec... Keep the right foot buried and the big five-door will top 235km/h.
VW is at pains to point out that fuel economy is largely unchanged. It claims 12.6lt/100km for the big blue bomber.
The added performance has come about through engine tune which yields a substantial gain in torque -- 100Nm. Indeed, the standard vehicle's torque is made to look inadequate by the 850Nm the R50 develops from as low as 2000rpm. Additionally, power has been raised by 28kW to 285kW.
The R50 can be distinguished from the standard Touareg V10 via its road-oriented 21-inch wheels and low-profile 295/35 rubber, upgraded brakes, bigger exhausts and other R cues. It gets body styling tweaks too -- in fact, at first glance it looks like the world's biggest Golf GTI!
Inside, the R50 is fitted with Nappa leather sports seats with R50 logo in front head restraints, individually heated front and outer rear seats, rear seat through-loading provision with ski bag, door sill inlays and pedals in aluminium with R50 logo, brushed aluminium inserts in dashboard and doors, dark-tinted rear and rear side windows and tiptronic gearshift paddles.
Promising segment busting performance, first deliveries of the R50 will commence in Australia by the end of the first quarter of 2008. It will be from $129,900.
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