VW Touareg: Fast, But Not As You Think

Ordinarily, we feature an end product—something that you can (or will be able to) buy—that has a high-speed component to it. Fast.

And we will admit that 11 days, 17 hours and 22 minutes doesn’t seem all that quick. And we would be wrong.

At least wrong in the context of what world-renowned adventurer and off-road driver Rainer Zietlow and his team, Carlos Fernandez and Marius Biela, did during that period of time.

The TDI-Panamericana Endurance Challenge team covered nearly 16,000 miles, driving the Pan-American Highway. They started at the southern-most tip of Argentina on July 2, 2011, and ended up in Deadhorse, Alaska, on July 13. They drove through 14 countries in a 2011 Volkswagen Touareg TDI Clean Diesel SUV on their way to a world record certified by Tüv Nord Mobility (tuev-nord.de/en/index.htm).

The crew of three drove essentially non-stop, taking five-hour driving shifts. The conditions along the way were not always two-lane blacktop smooth: While driving through Chile, for example, they encountered a sandstorm.

At the heart of the vehicle is a turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 diesel engine that provides 225 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque. Thanks to turbocharging, it works well even at altitude (e.g., the Andes). Because it is a diesel, it gets about 30% better fuel economy than a comparable gasoline-powered vehicle.

While there was a long list of sponsors for the Challenge4 team, some of whom provided tech for the Touareg in question, it is essentially just like one you can buy from your local Volkswagen dealer (vw.com), albeit without the extensive decals.