LA show: Volkswagen

One of the maddest races on earth is the Baja 1000. About 400 starters spend more than a day and a night tearing non-stop down insanely rough desert tracks. It all takes place in Mexican bandit country so remote and lawless that no-one goes to spectate.

VW has built this silhouette Touareg which ought to be in with a shout. It’s got a mid-mounted Le Mans Audi V12 TDI in a purpose-built spaceframe chassis, and suspension travel as high as a bus. It’s like a remote-control toy, except some drastically superfit driver has got to strap himself into the maelstrom and take the bucking beast by the scruff of the neck.

VW has done this as part of its effort to promote diesel in the US. And the US seems to be listening.

On the day of the show, the new Jetta Clean Diesel won the Green Car of the Year award in the US, a gong whose jury includes such various environmental worthies as the heads of the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council. And Carrol Shelby.

The Jetta CleanDiesel has the 140bhp 2.0TDI we’ve seen before, but with a whole chemistry lab in the exhaust. The result is emissions clean enough to be sold in all 50 US states – and it’ll pass all European regulations until at least 2015.
世界上最疯狂的比赛之一——Baja1000 。大约有400名车手花费了超过一天一夜的时间在狂暴而粗糙的沙漠上不停止的奔驰。这都发生在墨西哥这个土匪国家，偏僻而且违法，以至于没有人去观看 。

大众汽车已经树立了这个途锐的模型。它的地盘上有特别空间用于中置勒芒奥迪的V12 TDI发动机，悬架像巴士一样高。除了像在风暴中把自己捆绑起来和像骑在驯兽脖颈上一样，它就像一个遥控玩具。

大众汽车已经把这个当做在美国推进柴油机计划的一部分。美国似乎也有回应。

在车展的当天，新捷达清洁柴油机获得了美国绿色汽车大奖，一个包含Sierra Club主席和美国自然资源保护委员会主席在内的众多知名环保人士组成的评审委员会给出的奖章，其陪审团包括各种环境worthies作为首长塞拉俱乐部和美国自然资源保护委员会。

我们以前看过的捷达清洁柴油机是140bhp 2.0TDI，但整个排气都在化学实验室。结果是它的排放物清洁到可以出售到所有美国50个州，而且它会将所有欧洲法规至少到2 015年。