We remember a time when SUV’s were used for towing, pulling, and filling with 16 kids to go to soccer practice. Car companies have been trying desperately to shed the SUV’s workhorse/soccer mom reputation by coming out with faster versions of their generally slow trucks, such as the SRT-8 Jeep, which is as fast as an M3 and seats five comfortably. Volkswagen is the latest, with the souped up Touareg—the R50, to be released at the Australian International Motor Show next week.

The Touareg R50 is powered by a retuned version of the current V10 TDi and has gotten a boost in power over the stock 310 Horses and 553 ft.lbs of torque, although new numbers have not been released as of yet, Volkswagen claims the increase is “generous”. The R50 sits on some big new wheels wrapped in sport rubber, it’s equipped with sportier suspension and some interior and exterior mods have been added to give it more of an ‘R’ feel. The R50 follows in the footsteps of the legendary Golf R32 and the new Passat R36, which was launched at the Frankfurt motor show last month.

(Source: VW Media, VW Vortex)