Hmmm, V10s. They worked well in F1 cars, providing a wonderful, ear-splitting chorus to every race. And they obviously worked well for Lamborghini, since one of its best-selling cars to date had a 560hp 5.2-litre lump of a V10 powering it. Question is, does a V10 work in a performance SUV? Especially when that performance SUV is based on an understated Volkswagen Touareg and is powered by fuel, not from the green pump, but the black one instead.
Oh, the German car market in the 2000s was an interesting one. The vanity of Ferdinand Piëch who, after becoming enraged that Mercedes attempted to muscle into the Golf market with the launch of the compact A-Class in 1997, decided to do some muscling in of his own by demanding that VW build an S-Class-challenging luxury car - the Phaeton. Now, the S-Class (in Germany at least) could be had with a huge V8 diesel, so of course, the Phaeton had to beat that. The result was a 5.0-litre V10 which was the most powerful mass-production diesel of the time with some 310hp and 553lb ft of torque on tap.
But we're talking about a Touareg here, not the Phaeton. Given the scale of VW it was inevitable that the V10 TDI would also find its way into their new luxury SUV (another car with shared development, this time with Porsche which had controversially decided to jump on the cash-cow that was the premium 4x4 market - I wonder how that turned out).
Trouble was, while the on-paper stats were great, the 5.0-litre V10 diesel was not terribly refined, particularly for a luxury car. But, it was hot-hatch baiting quick. So, what would VW do for the facelift, make the V10 a little smoother perhaps? No, they'd just give it more performance: 35hp and 74lb ft more, in fact, and call it the R50. Oh, and charge £3,885 more for it too.
Did that matter much really? Not particularly for VW fans, and it was only ever going to be a limited run car anyway. According to How Many Left, 65 R50s were registered in the UK at its peak, with about 59 and two on SORN at the moment, so it does have some rarity on its side.
This particular R50 has covered 80,000 miles in its 10 years of existence, there's a full service history with one having just been carried out in April, all of the buttons in the interior still have their paint on them and, from the photos, it appears that there's a full set of Michelin tyres on it. Plus, there's the appeal of a two-and-a-bit-ton SUV that can launch off the line like a pace car and can hit 0-62mph faster than a Ford Focus ST. Costs about the same now, too. And it's got enough torque to pull out tree roots.
SPECIFICATION: VW TOUAREG R50
Engine: 4,921cc V10 turbocharged
Transmission: six-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 345@ 3,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 627@ 2,000rpm
MPG: 22.4mpg approx
CO2: 330 g/km CO2
First registered: 2008
Recorded mileage: 80,000miles
Price new: £61,990
Yours for: £16,995
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