LA 2008: VW Race Touareg 2

This is Volkswagens entrant in this weekend's Baja 1000: a spaceframe-chassis Touareg TDI with 75 cm of suspension travel competing in the top-dog Trophy Truck class and utilizing an oil-burning V12 with nearly 550 hp. That's a long way from the first VW win in 1967 that came courtesy of a VW Beetle converted into one of the soon-to-be-ubiquitous dune monsters. Driver Mark Miller won the Baja 500 last year in the first Race Touareg. Aided by helicopters and eight support vehicles, we'll find out on Sunday if he and navigator Ryan Arciero can take The Big One this year.

Live photos copyright (C)2008 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.