Buy This V10 VW Touareg R50 For Under £10,000

So, the VW Touareg is not long for this world, and frankly, we’re not particularly torn up about it. Well, not the second- and third-gen variants, anyway. When the first Touareg arrived in 2002, it was the height of Piëch-era VW Group madness, and as such, Volkswagen couldn’t just launch a large SUV.

No, it had to launch a large SUV with some truly ridiculous engine options. In some markets, you could get the same 6.0-litre W12 as the Bentley Continental, but arguably even stranger was the 5.0-litre turbodiesel V10 it was available with. It was only in diesel lunacy to the V12 oil-burner the Audi Q7 received a few years later.

In its usual guise, this mighty mill made a surprisingly small-sounding 309bhp but a gargantuan 553lb ft of torque, enough for it to famously drag a Boeing 747 in that one PR stunt.

That was the ‘normal’ V10 TDI, though. In 2007, VW decided that what was needed was a performance version. Enter the R50. It was treated to massive 21-inch wheels sat within flared arches, a ‘Sport Design Package’ that amped up the visual aggression further, and a 20mm suspension drop with the air springs retuned to cancel out (some) body roll.

Most notably, though, it got even more grunt. Power was up to 345bhp, and torque was increased to a truly ground-buckling 627lb ft, which could be delivered at as little as 2000rpm. 0-62mph now took 6.7 seconds, and top speed was 146mph, which feels like plenty in a car that enormous.

Unsurprisingly, the public’s appetite for an oil-burning V10 performance SUV with a Volkswagen badge was limited, even in those diesel-hungry days, especially when the R50 cost from £61,885 – around £105k in today’s money.

But small numbers did find homes, and we’ve found one for sale – a 111,000-miler, perhaps disappointingly in black rather than the R50’s signature Biscay Blue. We're splitting hairs over its colour (and its slightly patchy MOT history), though – a car like the R50 will never, ever exist again, and it feels like the £9990 being asked for this one might be one of the last chances to buy one for four figures. 

Will it be a risk? Yes, of course, but life’s all about taking risks (although if you end up having to sell one of your kidneys for medical research because one of the turbos failed, we never said that).