A Closer look To The Volkswagen Team At The Dakar

This is the Race Touareg 2 by Volkswagen. It is the winner of the Dakar 2010.

These are the main specifications:

Five-cylinder in-line TDI diesel engine, two-stage turbo-charging system with two exhaust turbo chargers and inter-cooling, longitudinally mounted behind the front axle. The displacement is 2,500 cc with a power output of 300 hp. It has a Sequential five-speed racing gearbox, and It is a permanent four-wheel drive car. It goes from 0 to 100 Kph in 6.1 seconds, and its maximum speed is 190 Kph.

This is how the cockpit looks like:

This is the process of loading the service trucks with all the replacement parts that the car might need during the race:

As you can see It requires a lot of organization, preparation, and hard work to win the Dakar. Congratulations to the Volkswagen team!

This is the Touareg that you can find at your local store in the U.S. It sells for approximately $40,850.00 U.S. dollars. For more specifications go to www.vw.com/touareg/completespecs/en/us/#engineering

Pictures courtesy of http://www.volkswagen-motorsport.com/

Volkswagen Takes 1, 2, 3 In The Dakar With Carlos Sainz As Winner. Team Peru Dakar Takes 47th. Place

The Dakar finished last Sunday and as expected Carlos Sainz won the rally. He was very close to win it last year until he felt to a dry river. So this was like a rematch for him. The Volkswagen team made the top 3 places with Nasser Al-Attiyah taking the 2nd. place just 2:12 minutes behind Sainz after 9,000 Kilometers of race. This was a perfect race for the Race Touareg 2 from Volkswagen. The 4th. and 5th. places were for BMW. Peterhansel made a good job with his BMW X3 CC. He finished 2:17:21 hours behind Sainz. Watch this video of the whole race.

This is such a difficult race that most participants are just happy to finish it. Most of the pilots are Exhausted at the end of the rally. An example of this situation is the case of Team Peru Dakar with Fernando Ferrand driving a FJ Cruiser from Toyota who finished in the 47th. place from a total of 57 cars. He finished 64:19:27 hours behind Carlos Sainz, but still, the Peru Dakar team was very happy.

Picture of the Peru Dakar team courtesy of www.peruanosaldakar.com

Driving Through Dakar´s Halfway Point

The Dakar is more than halfway, It is in its 9th. stage between Copiapo and La Serena in Chile. This is the route for today:

The Volkswagen team with its Race Touareg 2 model is dominating the event by grabbing the first 3 positions with Carlos Sainz being the leader. Their main rival Stephane Peterhansel driving a BMW X3 CC model is behind them on 4th. place but 02:02:25 hours away from Sainz. Peterhansel had transmission problems in stage 5, He had to drive half of that stage in only 2WD or 4x2 mode (imagine that in the Atacama desert). He managed to finish in the 33th. position in that stage. The following is a video from that difficult stage 5.

It looks that the fight for the first place in this Dakar will be between the drivers from the Volkswagen team. Enjoy the race!

The Dakar 2010 Edition

The Dakar rally has just begun last Saturday. This year´s rally is located in Argentina and Chile. In The car category there are two teams that are favorites to win which are BMW and Volkswagen. Volkswagen main drivers are Giniel De Villiers and Carlos Sainz, and BMW main drivers are Stephane Peterhansel and Joan Roma. The race finishes in Buenos Aires on January 17th 2010. This map shows the route. The drivers will have to make a 9000 kilometers loop through the continent. They will have to drive through the Atacama desert which is the driest in the world. You can follow the race on the official website http://www.dakar.com/. Enjoy!

Picture courtesy of http://www.dakar.com/

Which Is The Cheapest Car In The World?

Do you know which is the cheapest car in the world, and who makes it? Well, I found this article from the BBC where you can find all the answers. The car's name is Tata Nano and It is made in India. It sells for just 100,000 rupees ($1,979; £1,366).

Picture courtesy of http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Click on the following link to read the complete BBC article.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7957671.stm

Kimi Raikkonen To World Rally Championship 2010

Kimi Raikkonen will race in the world Rally Car tournament next year. He signed for Citroen for 2010 and He will drive for the second Citroen team (Junior World Rally Team). His copilot will be Finn Kaj Lindstrom who was the copilot of Tommi Makinen. Kimi will drive a Citroen C4. French Sebastien Ogier will drive the other C4 and both cars will be sponsored by Red Bull. Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo are still the first option for Citroen to defend the world title in 2010.

The only time Kimi competed in a WRC event was in the Finland Rally this year, He was in the fifteenth position when he abandoned the rally because of an accident. He drove an Abarth Grande Punto S2000.

Michael Schumacher To Mercedes GP?

A lot is happening in F1 right now, specially with the new Mercedes GP team. They have hired Nico Rosberg who is a German native who was a Williams driver this season. There is some speculation about who will take the other seat. Michael Schumacher is the number one candidate to take it, but first They will have to convince him to come out of retirement. Nick Heidfeld is another choice. He drove for BMW Sauber this season, and he is also German. Kimi Raikkonen who drove for Ferrari is a third possibility but It all depends if the team wants a German duo.

Jenson Button, and Rubens Barrichello left the Brawn-Mercedes team (Now Mercedes GP). Jenson went to McLaren to join Lewis Hamilton to form an all British lineup. Rubens went to Williams. Fernando Alonso moved from Renault to Ferrari to replace Kimi Raikkonen. As you can see there is a lot going on these days in F1.

Picture courtesy of http://www.topgear.com/