Big Bad Fifty
You pay a high price, but little else can outgun the R50 on the roads
Big everything (road presence, massive torque, lots of space) but easy and comfortable to drive 
Big everything: road tax will kill you, fuel consumption, price tag Volkswagen’s new R50 is a diesel performance SUV
By Derryn Wong
SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES are really a big conundrum. On one hand, Ford and Toyota have posted big losses in the USA due to a huge drop in demand for SUVs and trucks because of atmospheric oil prices affecting buyer demand. On the other there seems to be no slowdown in the production of go-faster soft-roaders like the BMW X6 covered in this issue.
Joining the league of big, lumbering pants-rockets is Volkswagen’s latest addition to the R performance range here: the Touareg R50. It’s the third model after the Golf R32 and Passat R36 but it’s possibly the most special. While its brethren get gasoline engines in excess of three litres displacement, the R50 (as its name suggests) is powered by a 4,921cc V10 turbocharged diesel engine.
Yes, you heard right, that’s five litres of turbocharged diesel mayhem waiting to be unleashed. This engine in its raw form is already present in the 4.9-litre TDI (turbocharged diesel injection) Touareg available in overseas markets. The lump present in the R50 however, has received some attention from Volkswagen Individual, the department that makes R cars for VW.
Improvements to the engine management system and turbochargers yield a 35bhp increase in horsepower up to 350bhp. That’s already 50bhp more than a Subaru Impreza WRX STi, but the name of the game as it always is with diesels is the torque.
It’s increased by 100Nm up to a bone-crushing total of 850Nm, generated at just 2000rpm as well. It means to R50 leaps forward when you floor the accelerator not so much like a scalded cat as an enraged lion. Also if you have a jumbo jet lying around you can use the R50 to tow it, as Volkswagen did with the standard 4.9-litre one back in a 2006 publicity stunt.
The R50 gets adaptive air suspension as standard, which can be set to sport, comfort or auto modes and features a “driving dynamics package with adaptive roll compensation”. It doesn’t make a huge difference though, as getting the almost 2.6 ton car around corners as easily as it does is already quite the feat of engineering.
The air suspension does offer great ride quality though and with the towering height of the car you don’t even need to slow for speed bumps. Despite the great height, weight and performance, the R50 is very easy to drive: you don’t get the sheer terror of knocking bits off the car in every corner like some big bombers. But like other big bombers the R50 doesn’t score any points in environmental friendliness as the reported fuel consumption was anywhere between 12 to 20L/100km.
Like the rest of the R range, the $298,000 price tag nets things other than just performance upgrades. The go-faster shade of blue is exclusive to the R50, along with chromed four-louvre grille, chrome front lip spoiler, roof rails. You get the full upsize treatment, with bigger front air intakes and bigger 21-inch 295/35 cross section rollers. The end effect is more than the sum of its parts, and makes the R50 radiate major road presence. Normal traffic scuttles out of the way when they see you pull up behind them.
The extensive equipment list doesn’t end there. Almost everything in the cabin is electronically adjustable like the front sport seats, steering wheel, mirrors etcetera. Other goodies include R range metal trim everywhere, R badged gearshift knob and a do-it-all touchscreen entertainment system with reverse camera.
However there is a fly in this diesel-based ointment, and that’s road tax. Currently special tax of diesel passenger vehicles is $1.25 per cc per year, on top of existing road tax, which means you’ll pay about $11,500 a year in road tax alone.
NEED TO KNOW
Volkswagen R50 TDI (A)
ENGINE TYPE 4,921cc, 20 valve V10 turbocharged diesel
MAX POWER 350bhp at 3,500rpm
MAX TORQUE 850m at 2,000rpm
GEARBOX 6-speed automatic
TOP SPEED 235km/h
0-100KM/H 6.7 seconds
PRICE $298,000 with COE
WARRANTY 3 years / 100,00km
CONTACT Volkswagen Centre Singapore
TELEPHONE 6474-8288
