Thought I’d share some photos from Volkswagen’s 2008 Baja program, since a lot of people have never heard of it.
Back in 2005, VW was racing the Touareg at Dakar to push its clean diesel program (yeah, I know). Mark Miller was one of their drivers, and he and Ryan had just won back-to-back Baja 1000s. Mark wanted to bring VW to Baja. VW in Germany was all for it. VW USA wasn’t sold.
So in 2006 they pulled money from the PR budget, took three basically stock V10 TDI Touaregs, added roll cages, and sent them up Pikes Peak with Mark, Ryan, and Indy 500 winner Danny Sullivan driving. They swept the podium. That got VW USA on board, the PR money turned into marketing money, and Red Bull came over from the Dakar side.
In 2007 they brought two Dakar Race Touaregs to the Baja 500, and Mark finished 11th overall without stopping for fuel once. After that, VW committed to a three-year trophy truck program. They were even planning to sponsor smaller VW-powered classes like 1600 and Class 11.
Mark and Ryan built the truck in about 13 months. For the engine, they leased the V12 TDI from Audi’s Le Mans-winning R10. It was mid-engine with an Xtrac gearbox, making 890 hp and 1,200 lb-ft with peak power at just 3,500 RPM. It snapped driveshafts and blew up third members, so they turned it down to 60% just to keep the driveline alive. You also weren’t allowed to start it without an engineer from Germany present, after a two-hour warm-up procedure.
It raced once, at the 2008 Baja 1000. The clutch acted up right off the start, and the gearbox let go on the La Rumorosa grade. They coasted down to the chase crew, swapped the box, and kept going. They finished 13th, the first diesel ever to finish in Trophy Truck. The chase fleet was a bunch of stockish Touaregs shipped over from the Dakar program.
The plan was to come back in 2009 and win. Instead, a new head of marketing at VW USA pulled the plug and moved the budget to American soccer. Meanwhile, the Race Touareg went on to win Dakar three years straight, from 2009 to 2011.
The truck didn’t end up in a museum. Ryan bought it for about the price of a used Jetta, and it’s still around today with an LS in it as his prerunner.