8/31/10

Volkswagen Touareg R50

Cars Mania Blog
Auto Car | Volkswagen Touareg R50 | Volkswagen has ensured that the Sydney motor show sends a ripple around the world, unveiling for the first time a more powerful version of its V10 diesel Touareg.

Dubbed the Touareg R50, the more powerful oil-burner now ranks among some of the most powerful soft-roaders on the market. The R50 is the third R-badged performance VW, joining the Golf R32 and Passat R36.

The world premiere of the R50 is another coup for the company's Australian division. Two years ago the Polo GTI made its first appearance down-under.

The R50 is powered by the same 5.0-litre V10 as the top-of-the-line Touareg, but output increases from the standard V10's 230kW/750Nm to 258kW/850Nm.

The R50 comes out of Volkswagen Individual, VW's specialist tuning shop. When it goes on sale here in Australia, it will sell for $129,990, an $8000 premium over the standard V10 version.

Volkswagen is also using the Sydney show to test the waters for the introduction of the Compact Wagon, a station-wagon variant of the Golf platform.

VW Australia managing director Jutta Dierks says the car maker is keen to bring the wagon into Australia, but will use the Sydney event to ask potential customers what they think of it.

"We're just testing the waters before we decide to bring it in," says Dierks.

The car maker also used its time to talk up the new 1.4-litre, fuel-injected twincharged engine that uses both a super- and turbocharger to turn out 125 kW.

However, Dierks said there were still no plans to roll out the engine to models other than the Golf GT.

Volkswagen has flagged that the 1.6-litre twincharged engine will eventually replace the 20-litre fuel-injected engine across the company's car range.

(www.drive.com.au)

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