Volkswagen Surviving Odds During The Dakar Rally

The Dakar Rally has been a successful event foroutstanding days when we claimed stage
Volkswagen with a 1-2 finish on the final stage ofvictories, five good days when we finished the
the arduous event. Giniel de Villiers' stage wins-hisstages in second and third places, and one black
fourth and Volkswagen's 10th from the 14day when both of our best placed cars suffered
stages-underlined the speed and dominance of theproblems."
TDI powered Race Touareg 2. It wasThe highest-placed finishers for Volkswagen were
Volkswagen's team that led the first eight daysAmerican Mark Miller and his South African
of the Dakar Rally but was cut short when theco-driver Ralph Pitchford, their Race Touareg 2
team encountered engine problems. Volkswagen'sfinished fourth place and just over two hours
team did not elaborate on the problem, so it's notbehind the victorious Mitsubishi with Stephane
really clear what goes wrong with the engine. ItPeterhansel as its driver.
should be noted that the German automaker isCarlos Sousa, Volkswagen's Portuguese privateer
famous for creating the best quality auto parts infinished seventh the event erstwhile leaders
the world like its Volkswagen fuel injectors. TheCarlos Sainz and de Villiers finished ninth and
untoward engine incident during the Rally iseleventh respectively. "It was a great rally for
something that is expected especially in such amyself and the entire team. Volkswagen has
grueling race fortunately Europe's largestclaimed 10 of the 14 stage victories-when it
automaker was prepared for it. And so at thecomes to strengths of this vehicle that says it all.
end the Volkswagen team still ends up triumphantI feel more disappointed for the team than for
although not in first place.myself that in the end we had no chance of
According to Volkswagen Motorsports Directorwinning."
Kris Nissen, "We're looking back on a Dakar RallyThe Volkswagen team's official partners are Red
which has given us many great moments as wellBull, Castrol, BP Ultimate, BT infonet, BFGoodrich,
as a bitter disappointment. Volkswagen had 10ZF Sachs, Bosch and BBS.