This is a serial killer in deranged.
Volkswagen will be off-roading. We’ve become used to seeing cool Baja Beetles dancing through the desert, but this time around the task falls to VW’s newest SUV and well, it looks interesting. Actually, with that Pennywise-meets-Gillette grille it looks downright spooky, but it also looks properly ready to attack the Baja 1000, which it will do next year.
Saad Chehab (senior vice president of VW brand Marketing) stated that racing as a sport was historically a restricted activity. “However, Volkswagens participated in Baja racing at its beginning, and we are excited to keep the youthful spirit alive through our Atlas Cross Sport R.”
This is not a regular Atlas Cross Sport. It still has a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine of 2.0-liter capacity under the hood. However, it is tuned to produce 480 horsepower (447 kW) in what VW calls a “balanced performance and reliability”. It’s possible to get more power than 480 but it’s still a powerful mill no matter how you slice it.
VW has not provided any details about the Baja SUV’s construction as it is still under development. It was built from scratch to be a racer and not a production model. It will be the first machine with four-wheel drive to compete in Baja Class 7 racing. Tanner Foust, a former Top Gear America host and Rallycross champion, will be one the drivers.
VW claims details about the competition will be available in 2020.