Renault is king of stuffing large engines aft of the front seats into its small hatchbacks, but few people realise that Volkswagen has done it, too. Showing its wild side, VW unveiled the rear-engined Polo Sprint at a company press conference in 1983. The idea was a simple one: to make a small and light, high-performance vehicle built using production components. A one-off prototype for evaluating handling data and aiding Volkswagen’s computer modelling, the Polo Sprint was rear-wheel drive, and powered by a 1.9-litre, flat-four engine from the Caravelle. Starting life as a 90bhp Caravelle Carat unit, a supercharger (which went to become the G40 blower), fuel injection and an intercooler boosted engine output to 155bhp, more than enough to give the Sprint a sometimes lively rear end.

The headline figures said it all. With the top end continental-only Polo Coupé GT putting out 75bhp (the most powerful UK Polo was the 55bhp GL hatchback), the Sprint was the highest performing Volkswagen supermini yet built, and certainly caused a stir. That 155bhp came at 5750rpm (with 9psi of boost) with a maximum 162lb ft of torque. Top speed was 125mph, and the 0-60mph dash was dispatched in 8 seconds. Even more powerful than the in-house 112bhp Golf GTI, the Sprint was close to the production version of La Regie’s 1.4-litre, 160bhp 5 Turbo first introduced in 1978. Sadly, the Sprint was never intended for production, and although rumours persisted that it may have been the basis for a 1980s Polo rally car, it was never to be.

To help the Sprint handle the extra 100bhp, the rear brakes were upgraded to discs, and the 14-inch ‘Avus’ wheels were fitted with Pirelli P6 195/60 HR 14 tyres. The power was transmitted through the standard Polo trailing beam rear axle to the road via a five-speed Caravelle gearbox. Sixty-six percent of the Sprint’s 900kg (1984lb) weight was over the rear axle, but when testing the car when it attended a Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders test day at Donington racing circuit, Richard Bremner of Motor magazine said: The Polo Sprint felt extremely stable, with excellent grip and turn in. Releasing the accelerator in mid-bend did not provoke any of the gyratory antics of earlier rear-engined cars’.

As if the idea of a rear-engined, rear-wheel drive Polo wasn’t mad enough, the rest of the car was equally wild. The standard Polo squareback bodyshell was bedecked in hot rod-like orange metalflake paint, while deeper bumpers with integrated spoilers were fitted, along with a larger lip wing at the top of the tailgate. Blistered wheel arch extensions helped cover the wider alloy wheels, while NASCAR-style ducts in the rear quarter panels helped feed air to the flat four powerplant. Tailgate ribbing at the rear of the car gave it a menacing look and was no doubt needed for the horizontal engine packaging.

The engine itself was accessible through a carpeted hatch in the boot, similar to a Volkswagen Type 3 Variant. The rear bumper gained a cut-out to make room for the visible rear underbody extension which noticeably housed the lower half of the engine. At the front, under the bonnet lived the mini spacesaver-sized spare wheel, fluid reservoirs, fuel pump and fuel tank. The star-shaped Mk 1 Golf GTI-type fuel filler cap was located in the offside front wing.

The interior was equally bespoke. A standard Polo dashboard was covered in purple velvetex and mated to a three-spoke sports steering wheel borrowed from the Polo LX special edition, while large orange and purple striped Recaro sports seats replaced the production perches. The rear bench was still in place, although a large hump for the gearbox robbed rear passengers of some room (a flat-four engine was chosen as its smaller packaging makes for a four-seater layout). A revised Polo instrument cluster neatly incorporated oil pressure, oil temperature and boost gauges in addition to the 240kph (150mph) speedo. Many observers of the time noted that the finish was so good, VW could have entered the car into a custom concours competition. Even a stereo system was fitted!

What became of the Polo Sprint? Nowadays it is part of Volkswagen Classic’s ‘rolling museum’, housed in a warehouse n Wolfsburg along with other special exhibits which are displayed on a rotational basis at various events around the world. My first trip to the AutoMuseum Volkswagen in Wolfsburg in 1988 as a wide-eyed 14 year-old saw the Sprint there, where it happened to be on every subsequent return trip.

Back in 1984, Jürgen Nitz, chief engineer of the Sprint project, stated that the car was helping his team research anti-skid and anti-wheelspin control systems which would enable front-wheel drive cars to have more power than the 130bhp he thought was the limit in 1984. How times change. Fast forward 28 years, and next time you see your traction control or ESP warning light flashing madly in your front-wheel drive Volkswagen, just remember the role the Polo Sprint may have played in keeping you safe.

This caught our eye. We’re used to modified Polos gracing the pages of UK tuned Volkswagen magazine Performance VW, but maybe none like this. Richard Vale’s modified Polo is no tuning parts special. An early version of the blown coupé, Vale’s white G40 has been built with the sole purpose of taking on hill climbs. Harewood Hill Climb near Leeds being one of them. Competing in class 1B for modified production cars up to 2.0-litres, the 750kg, near-200bhp ex-Polo G40 Cup racer regularly takes on its larger rivals and emerges victorious. Find out what raft of modifications make Vale’s Polo a stripped-out special by grabbing a copy of the latest (July 2010) issue of Performance VW magazine, on sale now from all good stockists. UK readers who prefer to get their modded Volkswagen kicks digitally can read the magazine on their Apple i-devices by visiting the iTunes App Store and downloading the Performance VW app.

[Image: Performance VW]

We didn’t see this one coming. The latest issue of Volkswagen modders’ title Performance VW, has a feature on the very pretty Series 2 Polo saloon, owned by ‘hardcore Dubber’ Brett Keane. The 1988 Porsche Arctic Silver car features early Polo saloon square headlights, shortened tail lamps (a very subtle and neat visual trick), and ‘old-skool’ 7×13” ATS Classic alloy rims. Power is provided by a 1272cc-based HH Sorg Motorsport Formula Konig engine, fed by Weber twin-40 carbs. It really is a stunning machine, and so simple, too, providing instant inspiration. To read the full story, buy a copy of the February 2011 issue of Performance VW magazine, available until 10 February.

[Image: Performance VW]

2011 unbelievably marks 30 years since the Series 2 Polo took over from the successful Series 1 model. Why unbelievable? We can remember when the second-generation hatchbacks, coupés and saloons were a common sight on UK roads. The Series 2 Polo was even Volkswagen UK’s best-selling model for a time during the 1980s. So, to celebrate, we’ve started a Series 2 Polo official publicity image gallery as part of our ‘Heritage’ section of the site. We’ll be adding shots throughout the year and may even have a model focus or two on the cars themselves. Head over here to see the first four images, most probably taken from the car’s European press launch in Sardinia.

It might be winter, but here’s something to encourage the sun to shine. The Series 2F Polo built from 1990-1994 had arguably the most special editions than any other Polo generation, with over 17 at last count. But, ultimately the rarest and most bespoke of them all is the Treser ‘Open Air’, made by Treser in Ingolstadt, home of Audi. That’s not the only four-ringed connection; Walter Treser was an ex-Audi engineer, who after leaving the company, set up his own outfit making bespoke sports cars. So what was he doing turning Polos into two-seat cabriolets? Read on to find out at least some of the answers.

The Polo Treser ‘Open Air’ wasn’t cheap, with the conversion costing DM16,000 on top of the cost of the 55 and 75bhp basic Polo donor cars. All Polo Treser Cabrios were not only ordered from the Volkswagen dealer, but also received a full VAG-approved guarantee. The standard four-seat Polo coupé body was fitted with so many modified panels, it was almost as handbuilt as more luxurious prestige cars. Only the front wings, doors and bonnet remained as Volkswagen had intended, with the rear wings and tailgate modified to take the new rear deck. New colour-coded sportier bumpers were fitted front and rear, while a new ‘beak’-style front grille replaced the standard VW slatted item.

The new roof was similar to a targa in that the panel directly over the occupants’ heads could be removed completely, leaving a B-pillar type arrangement and glass rear window. This too could be taken off the car, leaving a smooth and sports car-like body. When the roof was in place, the Polo Treser ‘Open Air’ had something of a notchback appearance, an unfortunate by-product of leaving the body shell’s B-pillar support in situ. This could then be folded behind the seats, and whichever way you look at it, while not graceful, the Treser ‘Open Air’ did inject some style and glamour into the then-dated Polo range.

Most Tresers were based on Polo GTs, and while 10 of the 290 produced were produced at Treser itself, the remaining 280 were converted by a firm in Austria. All Treser Cabrios were built between 1991 and 1993. Nowadays you’ll be lucky to see one, but one other question remains. Were Volkswagen inspired by the Treser Polo ‘Open Air’ for their special-edition Series 3 Polo namesake from the mid-1990s which featured an electrically-operated rollback-style canvas roof? We suspect not, but as with other aspects of Volkswagen Polo history, the Treser ‘Open Air’ is just one small and interesting part.

[Source: Treser-Club.com. Special thanks to Carsten Nitzsche]

We have always been a VW driving family. My dad has owned a few old Beetles in his driving career and rebuilt a written-off Wizard Beetle Roadster for my mum many years back. He now owns a rusty ’72 Bay Window camper that hasn’t moved for a while. My grandad has also had Beetles, as well as my uncle, but they now both drive mid-’90s Golfs. My love for the Polo started on a family holiday to Cornwall in 2003 where I saw a white Mk 2 hatchback sat near the beach with a surfboard on top. The car was quite ratty and that made it even cooler.

Little is known about Gertrude’s past but she is on a Nottinghamshire number plate (*TV suffix) and was first registered on 17 August 1989, thought to be in Mansfield. She was serviced in Surrey in 1990 and appeared to move to Buckinghamshire around 1992, the year I was born. Four years later in 1996, she turned up in East London. Nothing is known of her whereabouts until 2002 where documents show she was serviced in Surrey again, and then she was tinkered with in Canterbury, Kent in 2003.

Gertrude stayed in Canterbury until 2007, where my dad found her on an industrial site with a smashed window and in awful condition. Her last MoT was a disaster with three or four pages of failures! She reached our house in the same week she turned 18, and I got home after a weekend away with my mum and sister to find the rattiest Polo you could imagine parked out the back of our house! There were dents everywhere;, three black wheels, one silver; the front bumper was held on with cable ties; she had a smashed driver’s window; the list goes on. A more stuck-up teenager might have been less than impressed but I was over the moon with my perfect car.

The real restoration work began a year after she first arrived and lasted a gruelling 51 weeks taking us to a week before the 20th anniversary of her registration. My dad takes up the detailed story of her restoration.

‘The problem with a project that needs so much doing to it is “where do I start”. I had spent the last year of our ownership regularly trawling the internet and buying up any spares that became available for an ‘89 Polo. Given that I wanted my son to have a safe, reliable car I figured that with enough new parts he could also (almost) get the new car ride. His birthday and Christmas passed with him receiving gifts of things for the car that meant nothing to him. Eventually, with copious lists drawn up, we were ready to start.

‘I figured it would be sensible to start with the MOT failure sheets. These were worked through ensuring all failure items were rectified before stripping anything down. This way reassembly should be easier knowing it worked before it was removed. I left the “corrosion in offside inner sill” until last as this was by far the biggest job. In the end I stripped out the rear axle assembly and petrol tank just to give me safe access to the rust. While stripping out the tank and filler neck I discovered that the inner rear arch around the filler neck wasn’t closed off with a panel (a good idea though!) but was completely caked in years of road debris and mud. Over half a stone of mud was hacked away from this area before I could access the breather pipes and get the tank out.

‘I was then able to cut out the rot and fabricate and weld in the repair panels I had made from cardboard templates. While removing parts of the inner sill I came across an unopened packet of 20 cigarettes and three pieces of coal! I still haven’t figured that one out! With January just around the corner, I cleaned up the under panels before giving all new metal a liberal coating of red oxide primer, stone guard and brushed on two pack black paint. The rear beam and back plates were treated to the same primer and top coat before being reassembled with new wheel cylinders, bearings, shoes and drums, new rear springs and shocks and a new set of copper brake pipes I’d made up myself. At last I could get the car
back on the ground to reposition it for work on the front.

‘Once work had started on the front things moved quite quickly. Off with wings (very dented), the bonnet (scarred but salvageable), out with the engine and gearbox, and off with the struts and roll bar. This enabled me to clean up the engine bay, replace the rest of the brake pipes, sort out the steering rack gaiters and repair some ragged edges on the front valance. The engine was stripped down and rebuilt with new bearings, shells and rings. A new water
pump (which later drove me nuts due to a crappy casting that was never going to sit flat on the block) hoses and anything I could buy was included in the rebuild. The whole lot was scrubbed clean and given a coat of black to match the other components.

‘With the engine done it was a case of rebuilding the struts and suspension with all new bearings, bushes, springs, shocks, disks, hoses and pads. The new front shocks were the cause of a major headache for me. I just couldn’t compress the new springs enough to bolt up the top retainer. After much head scratching it transpired that my “bargain eBay purchase” was for a pair of 30mm lowered shocks and were never ever going to fit this setup. The lesson
there is always keep the old ones for comparison – it could have saved me no end of time.

‘With the car sitting on all four wheels for the first time in months it was time to refit the engine and gearbox. I’ve done many of these on projects over the years and have always relied on a gantry and hoist but I’m getting older and bigger and I’m doing this for my son for goodness sake and not to impress my young boy racer mates of the ‘80s and ‘90s so, I bought myself an engine crane. What a treat. Engine reinstalled in no time with no heart in mouth moments or damage to the surrounding area!

‘New hoses and radiator were fitted and the engine fired up in time-honoured first turn of the key (I had spun it over with the plugs out to get the oil flowing and draw the petrol through from the tank). That’s when I discovered the water leak from the pump body – mortified! Of all the jobs I could have done with the engine in the car I was now jamming my knuckles against the bulkhead to get the stupid pump out. Once the problem was identified I got a
replacement from the motor factors and all has been well to date.

‘Mechanically sound it was now the turn of the bodywork. To be honest if this was a pit pony they’d have shot it. Every panel seemed to tell its own story about the hard life the car had led in its latter life. The bonnet looked like Starsky AND Hutch had done their famous bonnet slide trick on it. Both sides had suffered “supermarket trolley” damage in what only could have been described as a supermarket trolley destruction derby, and the roof had probably been used as a lookout post! Two new front wings improved it somewhat but my son kindly said he didn’t want all of it’s historical patina (great word that means dent!) removed so with the help of a trusty friend who always gets roped in on these occasions, we set about removing the worst of the dings with a hot glue dent puller and a small amount of filler.

‘When the body finally looked presentable it was masked up for the first of its primer coats in my garage at home where the rest of the work had taken place. This was our second outing with spraying two pack paint at home and using a second compressor outside the garage to feed the breathing mask we set about laying on the Polo’s original Helios Blue colour. The previous summer we had painted a neighbour’s ’66 VW split-screen bus. This had been done as a block two tone colour but this time we wanted to see the effect of lacquer over base so after much flatting back a mist coat of unhardened colour was applied with one more coat to follow before a couple of coats of clear lacquer went over the top of that. The result was very pleasing 
for a first attempt and the “client” was over the moon.

‘Little was done to the inside save to remove the drivers seat cover and re-stitch the split seams and fit central locking to the front doors coupled to a half decent alarm. A set of optional alloys were sourced from eBay along with a correct tow bar for the car. I stripped down, filled and primered the wheels before giving them a few coats of wheel silver topped off with two pack lacquer. I made up some new VW logo centre caps and had a new set of tyres fitted – I was very pleased with the result. The tow bar was cleaned up before being sprayed to match the car then duly fitted and a new set of electrics hooked up to suit. Now it was time to stand back, admire the hours of work and hand the car over to it’s eager new owner. She sailed the MoT on the 17 August 2009, 20 years to the day after first being registered.’

The Polo G40 celebrated its 25th birthday at the AutoMuseum Volkswagen over the weekend, with a gathering of early Polo G40 fans from all around the world. Around 40 Polo G40s from 1987 and 1989 and their owners were expected at the AutoMuseum Volkswagen on Saturday, coinciding with the first International Polo G40 meeting in Wolfsburg. Owners had their photos taken with their cars at Castle Wolfsburg, setting for the original 1985 Polo G40 press photo (above), before moving onto the AutoMuseum Volkswagen where their vehicles were presented to visitors in the evening. The museum itself presented two special Polos of its own: the 155bhp rear-engined Sprint, and the Ökopolo, an economically-minded study, and a precursor of the modern-day Polo BlueMotion.

Volkswagen developed the 40mm spiral-shaped G-Läder supercharger in 1985, and fitted it to a trio of pre-production G40s to set long-distance speed records. Driven by Volkswagen engineers, motoring journalists and racing drivers, the cars set new 1300cc class records for both speeds over 24 hours (130.08mph) and average speed over 5000km (127.75mph). A production version of the G40 was presented at the 1985 Frankfurt Motor Show and had the designation Polo GTG40. A limited run of 500 cars with 115bhp became available in 1987 and between 1988 and 1999 a further 1500 models were made, all left-hand drive, and all selling out immediately. The Polo G40 went mainstream in 1990 with the launch of the facelifted Series 2 Polo, available in coupé form only and with 113bhp. It was sold until 1994, when the third-generation Polo was launched.

We’ve been doing a bit of late summer sprucing here at PoloDriver. There are still some parts of the site that we’ve still got to go through, but today, we’ve added more information about two Series 2 Polo special models; the Polo Mikado and the Polo Peppermint. The Peppermint (pictured above), was, as far as we know, only available in France and was basically a rebadged Fox. Available from September 1991, the Peppermint was available with a 1043cc 45bhp petrol engine and a 1398cc 48bhp diesel unit. Also built around the base-model Fox, the Polo Mikado was on sale year later, and featured special paint finishes (including the unique Violet Blue) and brightly-coloured interior trim. Other embellishments included exterior colour-matched wheel trim rings. Head over to the Series 2 specials page to find out more, and to let us know of any unique models we may have missed.

Here’s a long-forgotten TV commercial for the then-new facelifted Series 2 Polo. Arriving as the first small car range in the UK to fitted with three-way catalytic converters as standard, this clever 50-second TV spot from 1990 features a pristine white GT Coupé parked on a busy street and getting dirtier and dirtier as the seasons and day-to-day life debris pass it by. Soundtracked by ‘Oh What A Beautiful Morning’ (we don’t know singer; the song was covered by so many artists), we remember seeing the ad on TV at the time. As the car gets covered in more and more soot, grime, and weather and traffic-related dirt, the owner drives it off and the pay-off line is revealed: ‘The new Volkswagen Polo. Cars don’t come any cleaner.’ Understated genius.

[Source: m4ttyf via the Club Polo forum.]

Tying in neatly with its 2010 Polo GTI vs SEAT Ibiza Bocanegra twin test, Auto Express has put an immaculate 1991 Polo G40 through its paces on the same Welsh roads as the modern in-house rivals. Owned by Volkswagen Classic in Germany, the Nineties Polo even has a very apt ‘WOB-PO-40’ licence plate. The Polo G40 became a top-flight mainstay in the Polo range in 1991, following small volume production runs on the continent in the mid-1980s. Sharing supercharging as a means of propulsion (the new Polo GTI also has a turbocharger), the 113bhp ‘coupé’ weighed a flyweight 830kg and could crack 60mph from rest in only 8.1 seconds. Rawer than the latest model, read how the UK motoring magazine seemed to enjoy the driving experience.

[Image: Nathan Morgan/Auto Express]

It’s April, which means only one thing. No, not a guaranteed soaking from the showers frequent at this time of the year, but the build up to the Stanford Hall VW event. Tradtionally the start of my show season calendar, Stanford Hall is arguably the UK’s longest-running Volkswagen event, and certainly one of the most laid back. Always enjoyable – and usually blessed with good weather – the show is held in the grounds of the country house with which it shares its name. An event which favours standard as opposed to modified cars, the concours d’elegance must rate as one of the best in the country, let alone VW circles.

So, with just over two weeks to go, it’s time to get L307 in some sort of shape. No, not that I’m entering any concours classes (the time has been and gone for that, but I did win a trophy), but I have got a club stand booked and I want the car to look its best. Or at least as best as it can be. So, all those jobs that I’ve been putting off for months have got to be done, or at least partly done, so that the GT can sparkle in the spring sunshine. First up, the wheelarches. I used to clean them out much more regularly than I do now, but armed with a bottle of degreaser, a brush and a hose, the job was easier than I had been expecting.

The mud and dirt just fell off once it had been squirted with the degreaser and left for a few minutes. Any stubborn dirt was removed with the brush and rinsed again, taking care not to remove any of the factory wax, which I’m surprised was still there after almost 17 years and 160,000 miles. It didn’t take long, either; after about 90 minutes I was done, touching up any rusty lips and seams with a squirt of Waxoyl to help protect the old stager for a little bit longer. The results really do speak for themselves. The arches are wonderfully clean and bright, but, the downside is that once each corner of the car had been lowered off the trolley jack, the clean arches disappearing from view once again behind the tyres. Doh! Oh well, at least I know they’re done.

Next stop was the self-service jet wash. Again, in times when time itself was more plentiful, I would jet wash the underneath of the car in the spring (and just before winter) with a wash, rinse and wax cycle to get off any salt and winter grit. I couldn’t remember when I last did, so thought it necessary. £4, some water, shampoo and wax later, job done. There was an unexpected bonus, too. There’s been some proper, furry moss growing from the lip on the side strips of the car and one quick blast with the jet wash surprisingly removed it, saving me hours of poking it out with a sharp instrument! I might have dislodged part of the offiside back arch spat, though, as it now sits slightly proud of the body near the fuel filler flap. For now, I’ve squirted waxoyl down there to stem any potential rust. There’s still more cleaning to do, but I’ve made good progress. Next up, the engine bay.

Costs this month: £4 (jet wash)

This month sees ERP going for its MoT test, and like I do every year, I put it through its paces to rid myself of any surprises and to reassure myself that there are no lurking faults that might get the old stager a red ticket. I do all this in the month leading up to the test day itself, and although I have had the odd amber advisory before now, it has never been for anything more than a worn tyre or suspension top mount.

More importantly, this is also the time to carry out a service, and this year, it was the 110,000 mile one. All the important things like spark plugs were done this time last year, which reminds me I must change the fuel filter sometime soon. I booked the car at my employer’s garage on a Saturday for one reason; for it to be ready for the emissions check, the engine has to be at running temperature to be accurate. So, the drive in is the warm up and hopefully I will be able to get this checked first as I don’t want to be using fuel needlessly (not to mention that the running may adversely affect the fuel consumption).

The actual test went without too many hitches; a headlight aim just a tad too high and a non-working driver’s side repeater the only things of note. However, there was one advisory. The near-side steering arm ball joint was showing signs of movement, not enough to fail it but when I ’m told of it there is only one thing I can do, which is to replace it while I remember, saving a red ticket being handed out next time.

Looking at it the other way, ERP didn’t do too badly for a 19 year-old car. All I have to do now is decide what way to go with the ball-joint; embark on a possibly fruitless search to obtain the correct one as Euro Car Parts and GSF don’t list one separately, or buy a complete track rod from my local Volkswagen retailer (which also happens to be my employer, so I won’t have to worry about collecting it). Update to follow…

Costs this month: £50.35 (MoT test fee)

The biggest thing that’s happened to L307 JTM since my last report is that it’s now taking shelter from the weather in a borrowed indoor parking space not far from home. And while it will have to be moved, blinking into the great outdoors once more, it might not happen for a few weeks yet. Why indoors? The reason is simple – the water leak in the passenger footwell would have had time to dry out, or at least that’s what I’m hoping. Then it’s off to find somewhere that will water test the car, sourcing the leak once and for all.

In other news, fresh from last month’s minor DIY service, I looked back at some old parts receipts. It turns out the spark plugs were only changed 8,000 miles ago in 2008. Yes, that’s right, the Polo’s had only 8,000 miles roll under its wheels in two years. That was news to me (pleasant, I think) and was a much shorter distance than I’d thought. That figure might increase slightly this year, as I intend to attend more shows once the season gets underway, but then again, being effectively laid up for the last three weeks, maybe not…

Costs this month: £0

Just to prove that they are still around, here’s a 1991 Polo GT Coupé that we saw for sale on eBay today. It’s black, done 98,000 miles, has the optional factory-fitted sunroof and alloy wheels (which you don’t see often and are in fact also fitted to the 1980s Polo Coupé Ss) and, unbelievably, has had just two careful owners. With that registration plate, we think it could either be an ex-Volkswagen UK press or fleet car, too. Want a tidy piece of Polo history? Bidding ends here on 13 March.

EDIT: When the end of the auction was announced, the car sold for £620.00, attracting a total of seven bids.

Monthly UK title Volkswagen Driver features the 1990-1994 Polo Coupé GT as the star of its model profile section in its March 2010 issue. With five detailed pages devoted to the spritely small Volkswagen, the magazine looks back at the Coupé GTs life with period Volkswagen photographs and ‘anorak’-type panels covering the colour and trims available as well as a full technical specification. The page of owners’ opinions also features two of PoloDriver’s long-termers, with Simon Kimber and Rich Gooding explaining why the sometimes overlooked GT appeals to them.

Grab a copy of the March 2010 issue of Volkswagen Driver from all good newsagents (find your nearest stockist here), or contact Autometrix Publications on 01525 750500.

I hadn’t realised I’d neglected the car for so long. It was only when I thought about things and asked myself when the last service was, that it dawned on me that 2006 was probably the last time when a basic tinkering took place. And although only 13,000 miles ago, that’s far too long, especially for a 16 year-old car. It might have been later than that of course, but I neither had anywhere to work on it or have kept the service book up to date since then.

So last weekend, I set about rectifying the neglect. A basic part-service with easily-changeable items was the order of the day and a quick trip to our local branch of German Swedish and French yielded a set of new spark plugs, a new set of ignition leads and a new air filter. The journey was an insight in itself; the car was spluttering all over the place and almost stalled at two junctions. It felt more like a carburettor-engined car than a fuel-injected one, and brought back memories of driving my earlier Series 2 Polos.

The feeling was almost that of a misfire, something which I’ve experienced a lot this last winter. Damp conditions don’t make for smooth running at the moment, and even the inside of the car complains with iced-up windows, no doubt due to perishing seals. Opening the bonnet and taking the old ignition leads off diagnosed the problem. Some of the tips were oxidised and although not too bad a degree, the cloudy green ends that were once copper were no doubt the cause.

The plugs were much healthier and – according to the Haynes manual – signified that the 160,000-mile engine was in good order, the ends covered with a slight brown tint. The air filter wasn’t bad either; so much so I’ve kept it for now. All in all though, it’s amazing what results refreshing the most basic items can make. The car now feels transformed and is much, much smoother and no longer complains about the damp mornings or evenings. Only the heated rear window connector, front foglight bracket and passenger footwell leak to sort out before the summer…

Watch out for a basic service workshop feature coming soon.

Costs this month: £41.15 (ignition lead set £24.50; set of Bosch WR6DC+ sparkplugs £10.40; air filter £6.25)

(All parts prices are subject to VAT.)

A few thousand miles have now passed under the wheels and I think it’s safe to say that the Konis which now occupy the Weitec’s previous homes in the wheel arches are pretty good considering they were the only option available. The performance is progressive and neither overdamped or too soft.

This set-up actually suits what is being asked of the car day to day, whether it be speed humps (of which I encounter many during a week’s driving) or having to deal with the snow and ice we all experienced a few weeks ago. That’s the GT, there, on the right nearest the camera in the picture above.

I don’t know about you, but I find that I treat the snow and ice as my own personal playground and there are certainly benefits to having an nineteen year-old Polo. One of those is that there is no room for airbags or ABS/traction control electrickery and the car will actually pull away in third gear without any complaint.

Not having all this modern-day wizardry is actually more of an incentive to stay on the slippery stuff, as even ABS can be made to look a bit of a fool sometimes and not even ESP is completely immune from the odd Bambi moment! Long may the bodywork of your Polo be undamaged in this weather and may the traffic always be behind you and not in front…

Costs this month: £0

Back in September, German Volkswagen and Audi tuners ABT unveiled its latest take on the Polo, but, of course, this is just the newest in a line of Polo ‘specials’ the engineers and stylists at Kempten have produced. We found this smart (and we should think, rare) Series 2F coupé at German Polo fan site PoloMagazin.

Primarily concerned with chassis tuning and body styling, this set of ABT modifications were designed for Polos from 1991 to 1994. The body was lowered by 40mm by way of shortened springs and dampers, while 7J x 15 ‘A5’ alloy wheels (with an ET of 35) got power down to the road, as well as providing more kerbside appeal.

Finally, a different-looking (and sometimes ill-fitting) front grille made the ABT Polo 2F stand out, if taking away some of its identity. Inside, a sporty ABT steering wheel takes centre stage. With no further body add-ons and no engine upgrades, it was clearly much simpler 18 years ago and ABT certainly took a more restrained approach, unlike today.

The latest issue of Volkswagen Golf+ magazine has a two-page feature on PoloDriver in the club profile section. Showcasing the newest online Polo resource, the article tells the story of how the website came about and details the developments we hope to make, as well as featuring founder Rich Gooding’s 1994 Polo GT Coupé. The February issue of Volkswagen Golf+ magazine is on sale now until 29 January 2010.

With all best wishes to all readers of PoloDriver. We hope you have a fun-filled festive season and a healthy and prosperous new year. Join us next week when we’ll reflect over Polo developments from 2009 and look forward to what’s coming in 2010.