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Filed under: Motorsports , SUVs , Volkswagen Click above for a high-res gallery of the Volkswagen Touareg 2 Race Volkswagen Motorsport is putting four factory-backed teams in next year's 'Dakar' Rally , which will actually be held in South America, and they'll all be driving the new Race Touareg 2. The insanely intricate spaceframe chassis vehicles are being built in Germany and will use will use a 2.5-liter TDI with 276 hp and. The 15-stage race is expected to be more grueling than usual because of the extreme changes in altitude and terrain, but perhaps it will give other teams a chance to break Mitsubishi's seven-year chokehold on the winner's dais. Volkswagen's best chance at victory could be with driver Carlos Sainz, the 1990 WRC champion, and navigator Michel Perlin, a three-time Dakar winning navigator. The last -- and only -- time VW won the Dakar Rally was in 1980, with the Volkswagen Iltis . Gallery: Volkswagen Race Touareg 2 Continue reading Volkwagen...
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Filed under: Motorsports , SUVs , Paris Motor Show , Porsche Click above for high-res gallery of Porsche Cayenne S Transsyberia Porsche has won the Transsyberia Rally that runs 4,400 miles across Russia, Siberia and Mongolia three times in a row using only slightly modified versions of its Cayenne S. Not only that, it swept the podium in 2007 and took the top six places in this year's rally that ended just a few weeks ago. In celebration of these achievements, the German sportscar and erstwhile SUV maker is offering a special edition Cayenne called the Cayenne S Transsyberia. Scheduled to debut at the Paris Motor Show next month, the Cayenne S Transsyberia features the 405-hp direct-inject 4.8L V8 from the Cayenne GTS mated to Porsche's six-speed automatic transmission with a final drive ratio shortened 15% to 4.1:1. That scoots the big ute to 60 mph 6.1 seconds, half a sec quicker than a stock Cayenne S. What really sets the Cayenne S Transsyberia apart, however, are its exterior...
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Filed under: Motorsports , SUVs , HUMMER The TSCO Vegas to Reno race, part of the Best in the Desert off-road racing series, is 457 miles long through the Nevada sand and scrub. From start to finish takes many racers 12 hours or more, and a driver that goes the entire distance is known as an "Ironman." For this year's edition, Emily Miller of Team HUMMER plans on being the race's first ever Iron woman . Miller will be piloting an H2 in the stock class with a navigator, Jake Povey. Some will undoubtedly think it crazy to try winning off-road races in an H2, but Miller's teammate Josh Hall has won the race three years in a row in his H2 SUT. Miller's no stranger to the podium herself, having come second at this year's Terribles 250. The TSCO Vegas to Reno race happens this Friday, August 22 (that'd be tomorrow), where Miller will probably have some vintage Cake playing on the iPod. You can keep up with all the live action at www.rodhallracing.com, and to...
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Filed under: Motorsports , SUVs , Hatchbacks , Mitsubishi Click above image to enlarge The purpose-built rally car that Mitsubishi fields in the no-longer-aptly-named 2009 Dakar (the venue for the race is now South America , remember) will shed its Pajero moniker as well as the nominal styling elements that tied it to the Mitsu SUV. Instead, the new MRX09 is the "Racing Lancer". As such, the front end gets the Lancer's "Run for your lives!" gaping maw grille and squinty headlamps. In its press release announcing the updated vehicle, Mitsubishi also reaches for another Lancer tie-in when it points out the happy coincidence that the MRX09's bodywork "is redolent of the Lancer Sportback", which is another way of saying, "it slopes down in the rear." In any case, the Lancerized bodywork is more appealing than the squareback rump the Pajero racer wore. The new race buggy's drivetrain consists of the erstwhile Pajero Evolution's competition...
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Filed under: Motorsports , SUVs , Euro , Porsche Click above for a gallery of the updated Cayenne S Transsyberia Last year, Porsche built a series of race-ready Cayenne S Transsyberia SUVs for use in the rally event bearing the same name. Lessons were learned, and so for the 2008 running of the Transsyberia, Porsche is offering the teams who bought the trucks last year a conversion package that features a number of upgrades. These include a new sump guard, a beefier tire package, tweaked air suspension, a shorter final drive ratio (same as the new Cayenne GTS), plus updates to the transmission programming, dynamic chassis control and traction management systems. Driving from Moscow to Mongolia is no picnic, and these upgrades should make the already-robust Cayenne S Transsyberia even better-suited to handle the rough-and-tumble 4,400-mile course. You can check out the full specs after the jump, and see last year's post on the truck's unveiling for a peek at many of the other modifications...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Sports/GTs , SUVs , Supercars , Earnings/Financials , Spyker Click above to view high-res gallery of the Spyker C8 Aileron For such a small manufacturer of specialty vehicles, Spyker hemorrhaged a huge amount of money last year; 72.075 million euros ($113.07 million at current exchange rates), to be exact. Part of this loss was due to the sale of its Formula 1 operations, but their car-selling business managed to cost them a few million more. Money was so tight that the Dutch supercar company only managed to assemble 26 cars last year -- only two in the final quarter, despite the waiting list for their wares. Good news is on the horizon, though, as Spyker has received a cash-infusion from Snoras Group, a Lithuanian bank (and now the largest shareholder in the company), and is again up-to-speed on automobile production. The long-wheelbase C8 Aileron , along with its new automatic transmission, is scheduled to go on sale in the third quarter of this year, while...
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Filed under: Motorsports , SUVs , Mitsubishi click above image for high-res gallery The 2008 Dakar Rally, a rigorous off-road endurance test, begins on January 5th in Lisbon, Portugal. The event will end on January 20th in Dakar, Sengal. That is a distance of 9,273 km (or 5,762 miles) full of sand dunes, rocks, mud, camel grass, etc., and an increase of more than 1,000 km (621 miles) over the 2007 race. Since 2001, Mitsubishi and its Pajero/Montero entries have dominated the automobile class of the event. Mitsubishi Motorsports recently announced its 2008 lineup of four Pajero/Montero entries. Three of the Diamond Star Motors' driver match-ups have previously won the event. The pair of Stephane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret won in 2007. Luc Alphand and Gilles Picard won in 2006, while Hiroshi Masuoka and Pascal Maimon took the title in 2002. The final entry of Joan (Nani) Roma and Lucas Cruz Senra have yet to see the top of the podium on four wheels, but driver Roma previously won...
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Filed under: Motorsports , Sports/GTs , SUVs , Porsche Rod Millen has another trophy for the cabinet. Along with co-driver Richard Kelsey, he took first in the Rally Transsyberia which ran the 7,100 kilometers from Moscow, Russia to Ulan Bataar, Mongolia...
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