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The Touareg Expedition from Volkswagen Individual is confirmed as holding the
"Guinness Book of Records” entry for the highest altitude recorded for a
vehicle.
On 29 January 2005, battling against icy winds and a lack of oxygen, the
expedition team fought its way through the lunar landscape of the Ojos del
Salado, the world’s highest volcano, in a standard Touareg Expedition to achieve
the world’s altitude record for vehicles. The altimeter and GPS system displayed
an altitude of 6080 metres. This is the highest point on the surface of the
Earth that a vehicle can reach and safely return from.
On 16th February the confirmation came from London: the record has been
officially recognised by the “Guinness Book of Records”. The Touareg has thus
impressively proven its strengths in extreme conditions and surpassed the
performance of all other off-road vehicles.
The route of the team of eight, headed by expedition leader Rainer Zietlow,
first took them through the Atacama desert, the world’s driest area. The base
camp is located at 4,400 metres above sea level above the salt lake Laguna Santa
Rosa, famous for its pink flamingos. From here the trail continues over stones
and pebbles with an 80 % gradient, snow fields and soft volcanic sand. At the
wheel of the Volkswagen Touareg was Ronald Bormann, who has won the European
Truck Trail competition several times. In sections where rocks as large as a man
blocked the path, the winch, fitted as standard to the Touareg Expedition,
helped the team on its way.
The additional spotlights, also part of the standard equipment package,
fitted to the roof rack containing spare wheels and rescue equipment, lit the
way through the night to the rock-strewn summit. As the air became thinner at
5,000 metres above sea level, the crew was given additional oxygen by altitude
specialist Dr Rainald Fischer. This way the chairman of the Association for
Mountain and High Altitude Medicine (BExMED) was able to ward off the
potentially life-threatening altitude sickness.
The Institute for Cartography at the University of Dresden helped to select
the route to the summit following a recent four-week survey of the summit region
for the purpose of making new maps. The knowledge gained by the expedition will
help the scientists verify their work.
However, the most important scientific aspect of the expedition to a region
endangered by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions was the installation of a
seismographic station, managed by the Geological Research Centre in Potsdam.
This station makes it possible to register eruptions directly above possible
earthquake focus sites, thus advancing global earthquake research.
In the city or country, on freeways or a dirt track, as a service vehicle at
the Dakar rally or as an expedition vehicle used for scientific purposes - the
Volkswagen Touareg has once again impressively shown that it is equipped for a
wide range of situations.
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