Volkswagen Tarek

The Volkswagen Tarek is an off-road competition car that Volkswagen produced in 2003. It was presented at the Essen Motor Show and conceived to take part in the 2003 Dakar Rally. It used a 218 HP 1.9 turbodiesel with injector-pump direct injection and a variable geometry turbine, giving 390 N m of torque, and it drove the rear wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox. The tubular steel frame carried a carbon fibre body, with double triangle suspension and coil springs on each side, adjustable shock absorbers, 16 inch rims at the front and 15 inch at the rear, and a 250 litre fuel tank. Jutta Kleinschmidt, Stéphane Henrard and Dieter Depping were the drivers chosen; Henrard finished sixth in the rally and Kleinschmidt eighth.