New era as Volkswagen Motorsport win the 2009 Dakar Rally on Diesel technology
Historic victory
The BP Ultimate-backed Volkswagen Motorsport team launched into the unknown on January 3 2009, when it tackled one of motorsport’s most challenging events ever to make Dakar history.
- The Volkswagen Motorsport team are the first winners of the "Dakar’s” debut event in South America.
- This is the first diesel powered engine to win the car class of the Dakar.
Powered by a specially-formulated BP Ultimate fuel that helps boosts power output, torque and fuel efficiency, the diesel that has fuelled Volkswagen to the 1-2 Dakar finish uses the same advanced technology as the BP Ultimate Diesel sold on forecourts across Europe and the world.
The Volkswagen team constructed a driver and co-driver line-up that lead them to the podium.
1st Ginielde Villiers (South Africa) / Dirk von Zitzewitz (Germany)
2nd Mark Miller (USA) / Ralph Pitchford (South Africa)
6th Dieter Depping (Germany) / Timo Gottschalk (Germany)
Kris Nissen, Team Director said, "With a small, powerful TDI diesel engine, a highly advanced chassis and world leading diesel fuel technology, we created the technical potential which gave us the best advantage. The Volkswagen Motorsport technical staff and the Technical Development, alongside BP Ultimate fuel experts in Wolfsburg, were the key elements for success.”
This remarkable performance across some of the world’s highest mountains and most inhospitable deserts is testimony to Volkswagen’s engineering excellence and BP’s world leading fuel technology.
