Can a Volkswagen Touareg Pull a Boeing 747? | Fifth Gear

[00:00:00]When I first tested the Volkswagen Touareg way back in 2003, I actually tested the power of its awesome 5 [music] L V10 diesel, which at the time was one of the world's most powerful engines, by just dragging lots of heavy stuff around.

[00:00:14]Like an enormous telegraph pole, a people carrier trying to drive the other way, and a 7-ton combine harvester.

[00:00:26]That mega engine, with its whopping 750 Newton meters [music] of torque, pulled all of those things with ease.

[00:00:33]For 3 years, I've been looking for something big enough to justify both mine and the Touareg's pulling prowess.

[00:00:41]Well, I think I've found it.

[00:00:46]A 155-ton Boeing 747.

[00:00:51]It's got a 200-ft wingspan.

[00:00:55]It's over 230 ft long.

[00:01:01]IT'S OVER 60 FT TALL.

[00:01:05]To buy one new will cost you around 230 million dollars, and that doesn't include leather seats.

[00:01:13]When you see these things land on the telly, these wheels look kind of small, but there's 18 of them on this 747, and they're all 3 ft tall.

[00:01:22]If the Touareg tows this, we reckon it'll be a new [music] world record for the heaviest thing towed by a production car.

[00:01:30]What ho, Jethro! We're coming in over the Atlantic, we're not stopping.

[00:01:44]After making sure [music] the plane's handbrake was off, I sized up the enormity of what we were intending [music] to do.

[00:01:51]Pull a jumbo jet with a family 4x4.

[00:01:59]I'm not sure it's going to do it, you know.

[00:02:05]So, there we have it, set up. Now, in theory, this engine is powerful enough to drag that, but it has trouble getting enough grip onto the tarmac to actually move it without spinning its wheels. So, for that reason, they have added to this 2.5 ton Touareg 4.3 tons of ballast.

[00:02:26]That's the equivalent of three small family [music] cars.

[00:02:30]And this is a totally standard production vehicle.

[00:02:34]The only thing we've had to do is double the tire pressure to cope with the extra weight.

[00:02:39]Although Michelin have warned us if we go over 20 mph, they may explode.

[00:02:46]This really is testing to the extreme.

[00:02:51]I've been told put it into drive and we're in low ratio.

[00:02:55]So, you kind of you multiply your attractive force because you've got a low ratio gearbox and then very, very gently on the throttle to about 2,000 rpm.

[00:03:06]1,000, nothing.

[00:03:10]Got a bit of movement.

[00:03:13]That's it, we're off.

[00:03:19]That's 1,600 rpm and I'm pulling a 747 with a Touareg.

[00:03:24]Oh my god, the view through the wing mirrors.

[00:03:28]If you've ever been tailgated on the motorway, well, you've got nothing on me.

[00:03:39]Well, this feels quite odd. Just got to be really gentle with the throttle, but it it's not bogging down or or doing anything weird. It's just It's just pulling it. That's 155 ton on the back of this.

[00:03:50]And you kind of aware of it, I can't look in the rear view.

[00:04:01]That's so odd. We're doing 5 km an hour, which is as fast as I'm going to go.

[00:04:09]That's awesome.

[00:04:11]155 ton [music] in a Touareg, a new world record.

[00:04:24]Oh.

[00:04:25]Right, I've backed off a bit now.

[00:04:27]Just going to let it roll to a stop.

[00:04:30]You can't put the brakes [music] on cuz apparently it burned the discs off the car, so we just have to let it go down.

[00:04:35]Very last minute, we just apply some brakes.

[00:04:40]There you go.

[00:04:42]A little bit of a thump there.

[00:04:44]And we've stopped.

[00:04:48]At the start of today, nobody mentioned that I'd have to push it back into position.

[00:04:53]I bet Tiff doesn't have to do this sort of thing.

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