Race Touareg 3 (Germany, 2011)

Volkswagen's Race Touareg 3 was the winning car in 2011’s Dakar Rally in South America. The vehicle secured Volkswagen its third consecutive "Dakar” victory, driven by Nasser Al-Attiyah and Timo Gottschalk.

As indicated by its name, the Race Touareg 3 is the third model version of the Race Touareg. While developing the RT3 Volkswagen engineers focused on the improvement of the cooling system, the optimization gearbox tuning and the increase of power for driving at high altitudes. The engineers also worked to increase the performance capabilities of the RT2.

One of the main changes in the RT3 comes in terms of aeroynamics, with the prototype suffering the biggest changes since the model change from the original Race-Touareg to model version two. The most obvious change can be found in the roof area where the air flow towards the radiator, the damper cooling and the diesel fuel cooling systems has been completely modified. This change was made in order to enhance the the chimney effect to remove the heat which accumulates under the carbon fibre-reinforced cladding while optimising air supply in the process.

In terms of the intercooling system the Volkswagen Motorsport engineers used proven components used on the production of the brands commercial cars. The cooling element of the intercooler – a supplier component in any motorsport discipline – was designed and produced for the Race Touareg 3 by the prototyping department of the Volkswagen brand. With it the RT3 gained in efficiency which is directly reflected in improved power output. In fact the 2.5-litre TDI diesel engine version for the 2011 Race Touareg 3 has a maximum output of 229 kW (310 hp), seven kW (10 hp) more than the unit used in the Race Touareg 2.

After winning the last two editions of the race, Volkswagen had a clear objective for the 2011 edition: take the trophy to Wolfsburg for the third consecutive time. To achieve it Volkswagen participated with four newly developed Race Touareg 3 vehicles that underwent a hard endurance test consisting of the Pampas, the altitudes of the Andes and the Atacama desert in Argentina and Chile.

In order to check the progression of the Race Touareg 2 into the model version 3 Volkswagen put the RT3 through three weeks of testing in Spain and Morocco, being able to make a direct comparison with the old model. The Race Touareg ran almost 10,000 km of simulated special stages, around Mahmid with temperatures of up to 48 degrees Celsius and around Erfoud, where the endurance tests took place.

The German brand presented the 310-hp four-wheel-drive challenger in the nearly 2000-year-old amphitheatre in Trier, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, in front of a crowd of 1,000 spectators.

The 2010 "Dakar” winners, Carlos Sainz/Lucas Cruz (E/E), Nasser Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D), the 2010 "Dakar” runners-up, Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz (ZA/D), the 2009 "Dakar” winners, and their team colleagues Mark Miller/Ralph Pitchford (USA/ZA)  were the four duos selected to represent Volkswagen at the 2011 Dakar Rally from 01 –16 January 2011.