Cool Concept: Volkswagen Touareg R GT

Despite rising gas prices and the proliferation of hybrid vehicles, there is no shortage of performance-oriented SUVs on the market. Vehicles range from the Cadillac SRX with 320 horsepower, a Land Rover Range Rover Sport with up to 390 horses, and the upcoming Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8 with 415 ponies extracted from a 6.1-liter Hemi V8. Even the 268-horsepower Toyota Highlander Hybrid is billed as a performance SUV, at least by its maker. For its part, Volkswagen offers the Touareg, cousin of the 450-horsepower Porsche Cayenne. But in stock form, VW’s SUV offers between 240 and 310 horsepower.

While the Touareg makes admirable power, especially with its V8 engine, Volkswagen engineers decided to test their SUVs limits by creating the Touareg R GT Concept. In place of the standard V6, V8, or V-10 turbodiesel engine is a 3.2-liter V6 with twin Garrett turbochargers that cranks out 500 horsepower that’s distributed to all four wheels via VW’s 4XMotion system. Rounding out the package are 22-inch alloys and a full body kit.

SRT? Porsche? Puh-lease.