10% off your first order — create a free account

Create free account
✓ 14-day returns ✓ Hand-checked before dispatch ✓ Secure checkout
My account

Volkswagen Race Touareg Red Bull #317 Gordon / von Zitzewitz Dakar Rally 2005 Minichamps 1:43

New arrival
Volkswagen Race Touareg Red Bull #317 Gordon / von Zitzewitz Dakar Rally 2005 Minichamps 1:43 436055317 Diecast
1 / 5
Minichamps' 1:43 diecast Volkswagen Race Touareg reproduces the #317 Red Bull-liveried entry driven by Gordon and von Zitzewitz at the 2005 Dakar Rally. The sealed diecast body keeps the sponsor graphics unbroken across the doors and bonnet, while the raised stance and knobbled off-road tyres capture the raid car's stance faithfully. A neat addition for collectors building a rally raid theme alongside WRC and touring car models, this Volkswagen sits at the more specialist end of Minichamps' motorsport range.
Volkswagen Race Touareg Red Bull #317 Gordon / von Zitzewitz Dakar Rally 2005 Minichamps 1:43
Current price: £49.00
Only 2 units left
Estimated delivery: 02-06.10.2026
Delivery from £10.00 Tracked & insured
10% off your first order — create a free account
Pay securely with
Specifications
Car Brand
Volkswagen
Model Manufacturer
Minichamps
Scale
1:43
Material
Diecast
Model Condition
New Model
SKU
436055317
Genuine articles Sourced from manufacturers
5-layer carton Foam-filled interior
Hassle-free returns 14-day no-quibble returns
Secure payment Bank-level encryption

About the Volkswagen Race Touareg Red Bull #317 Gordon / von Zitzewitz Dakar Rally 2005 Minichamps 1:43

TL;DR: Minichamps' 1:43 diecast Volkswagen Race Touareg reproduces the #317 entry driven by Gordon and von Zitzewitz at the 2005 Dakar Rally, finished in full Red Bull livery. The sealed metal body carries crisp sponsor graphics, a raised rally stance, and knobbled off-road tyres true to Volkswagen's early works raid programme.

Dakar rally raid cars occupy a different world from tarmac racers, built to survive weeks of desert punishment rather than a single lap record. Volkswagen's factory-backed Race Touareg programme, launched in the mid-2000s, brought that raw endurance discipline to a marque better known for saloons and hatchbacks. This diecast miniature keeps that raid-car character intact.

Minichamps' Sealed-Body Diecast and the Red Bull Livery

Tampo Printing Across a Sealed Shell

Rally raid liveries carry more sponsor real estate than almost any other racing discipline, and the Race Touareg's Red Bull scheme spans bonnet, doors, and roof in one continuous design. Minichamps casts this Volkswagen as a sealed one-piece shell, and that construction choice suits a heavily graphic car particularly well: the tampo-printed logos run unbroken across what would otherwise be a door shut line, keeping the artwork intact rather than interrupted by a hinge gap. Colour separation between the yellow, blue, and white panels stays sharp under close inspection, with no bleed where one printed layer meets the next. For a livery this dense, a fixed body is the better engineering choice, not a compromise.

Raid-Spec Detailing at 1:43

Beyond the graphics, the model carries the visual language of a genuine raid car rather than a road-going SUV wearing stickers. The raised ride height and long-travel suspension geometry are captured in the stance, while chunky, deeply treaded tyres reflect the sand and gravel rubber raid teams actually ran. A roof-mounted light bar, underbody skid protection, and a rear-mounted spare wheel carrier are all present in miniature, details that separate a dedicated Dakar diecast from a generic off-roader casting. Wing mirrors and door handles are moulded rather than separately fitted, a sensible simplification at 1:43 where such fittings would be barely visible once the model sits on a shelf at arm's length.

Volkswagen's Works Dakar Programme in the Mid-2000s

The Race Touareg as a Raid Prototype

Volkswagen built the Race Touareg specifically for cross-country rallying, sharing only its silhouette and badge with the production SUV that inspired it. Underneath sat a bespoke tubular chassis, long-travel suspension, and a diesel powertrain, engineering aimed squarely at surviving thousands of kilometres of unmade Sahara and South American terrain rather than everyday motoring. The programme launched in the mid-2000s as Volkswagen's first serious factory push into rally raid, a discipline where Mitsubishi and Nissan had long dominated. Those early seasons were about building reliability and pace rather than outright victory, groundwork that eventually paid off when the Race Touareg took overall Dakar honours later in the decade.

Gordon and von Zitzewitz on the 2005 Route

This #317 entry, crewed by Gordon and von Zitzewitz, represents Volkswagen's developing raid effort during the 2005 running of the Dakar Rally, still North Africa's marathon at that point in the event's history. Finishing such an event at all, let alone competitively, demanded a car that could absorb dune crossings and rock fields without mechanical failure, and a crew capable of sustained navigation over days rather than hours. The Red Bull colours on this particular chassis mark it as part of a wider sponsored effort rather than a one-off entry, the kind of factory-adjacent programme diecast makers favour precisely because the livery photographs so well in miniature.

Where a Dakar Diecast Sits on the Shelf

Dakar and rally raid diecast occupies a smaller corner of the motorsport collecting world than Formula 1 or WRC, which makes a well-detailed 1:43 Race Touareg worth seeking out on its own merits rather than as a bargain alternative. It sits naturally alongside other raid-class models, whether Mitsubishi Pajero Evolutions, Nissan Terranos, or Volkswagen's later championship-winning chassis, building a chronology of the discipline's evolution rather than a single marque's story. The scale suits the subject well: a full-size raid truck would dwarf a display cabinet at 1:18, while 1:43 keeps the proportions readable without demanding disproportionate shelf space. Buyers checking fidelity should look first at tyre tread pattern and ride height, the two details that most quickly separate a considered raid-car casting from a generic 4x4 wearing a Dakar decal.

Same marque, same scale

Collectors also bought

Browse all 1:43

10% off your first order

Create a free account and claim 10% off your first order — from hundreds of collectible 1:18, 1:43 and 1:12 models by Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and more.

Create free account Browse the collection
Collectible 1:18 scale Porsche model on a clean studio backdrop — Models118 first-order offer
£49.00
£49.00
0