Which car best represents the ‘build it or you’re fired’ engineering excess of Ferdinand Piëch’s Volkswagen Group? Probably the 987hp, 407kph Bugatti Veyron. And the 113km/L VW XL1. Or the attempt to outdo the S-Class Mercedes with the spectacularly unsuccessful Phaeton. The list of self-owning zero business case leviathans is hilarious. And right among them is a Volkswagen Touareg... with a turbodiesel V10.
Unlike Audi (which later one-upped its parent company with a V12-powered Q7 TDI), VW didn’t have a diesel motorsport effort to promote. It already had a gas-fed W12 on the books. But someone, somewhere in product planning figured there would also be enough demand for a diesel drinking flagship engine.
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The resulting engine delivered 308hp and 750Nm. Record breaking numbers for a diesel at the time, but the Touareg ended up north of 2.6 tonnes. There was headroom for a tune-up which duly arrived with the Volkswagen Touareg R50. Boosted to 345hp and 850Nm, it’s the single torquiest V10 ever devised for the public highway.
Those who own/have owned this ten-cylinder beast report about 9km/L in mixed conditions and monstrous towing ability. There was a time when VW set up a Boeing 747 hauling stunt when the car was new. But squeezing such a vast powerplant into a ‘normal car’ engine bay means working on the motor in situ is like trying to build a king size bed in a phone box.
Still, none of Piëch’s follies are cheap to run. They’re landmark cars. And for turning a Touareg into the world’s first modern super SUV, the R50 V10 deserves commemoration. It was a different time...
Volkswagen Touareg R50
Engine: 5.0-liter twin-turbo V10 diesel
Power: 345hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Layout: AWD
Performance: 0-100kph in 4.9secs, 235kph
Weight: 2,620kg
NOTE: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
