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13 September 2010 ~ 1 Comment

Celebration of the Polo G40 at the AutoMuseum Volkswagen

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.

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07 September 2010 ~ 0 Comments

Polo 1975-1981: site update of Series 1 history and specials pages

We’ve recently updated the Series 1 Polo (1975-1981) heritage and specials pages with a few more historical facts. The original Polo’s first public viewing was at the London Motor Show at Earl’s Court in the autumn of 1975 (or so a period cutting we’ve recently got hold of tells us – note the early pressed steel wheels in the photo above). A year later, the first of two runs of the special Polo Jeans was launched in Europe. In a similar vein to the Jeans Beetle of 1974, the Polo Jeans had denim upholstery, unique badging and a special colour palette. We’ve also done some digging and found out that the car came with wider tyres (depending on which of the 895cc and 1093cc engines were fitted). The first batch of Polo Jeans models appeared in August 1976, the second following in June 1978.

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02 September 2010 ~ 0 Comments

Polo GTI stars at gamescom

Last month, as a further marketing exercise for the new Polo GTI, Volkswagen exhibited the car at gamescom, Europe’s largest electronic games show in Cologne. To support the launch, from 18-22 August, visitors could also experience virtual Polo GTI-powered Volkswagen Racing Cup simulators, with the best drivers receiving real-life safety training from VW’s young driver programme. Winners of the awards were announced by Hamburg-based German rapper Samy Deluxe (no, we don’t know who he is either), who is involved in the musical support of the Volkswagen Sound Foundation.

A white Polo GTI was centre stage on the Volkswagen stand in Hall 9, and is the first car to be actively marketed on social networks by the German company. Hitting cyberspace communities only a few weeks ago, the Facebook ‘Fast Lane – Driven by Fun’ campaign is primarily aimed at young drivers, with interactive videos and competitions, to drum up interest in the new performance Polo. Digital eGames are very much now part of Volkswagen’s international marketing arsenal, and the company has its own Facebook electronic games channel at www.facebook.com/volkswagen.egames

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01 September 2010 ~ 0 Comments

Volkswagen Polo Cup India 2010: third round wins for Bolisetti and Ghorpade

Sailesh Bolisetti and Parth Ghorpade were the most successful drivers at the third race weekend of the Volkswagen Polo Cup India 2010 at Coimbatore on 28 and 29 August. Bolisetti, who had celebrated two victories as early as the first race weekend, triumphed in race one and finished the second race in second place. 17-year-old Ghorpade took fifth place in the first race and in the second round captured the lead which he maintained all the way across the finish line.

Bolisetti clinched the first two races of the season back in June, and started second on the grid at for the first race of Round 3 at the Kari Motor Speedway, overtaking Vishnu Prasad on pole in the fourth lap. Completing the race in 25 minutes and 55.675 seconds, Prasad and Sahil Shelar were on his heels, finishing second and third respectively. An ecstatic Bolisetti said: ‘I got a good line and was able to pass Prasad on lap four. After a minor set back in round two, it feels great to be back on the top of the podium. I hope my luck continues to the next race and I hope to back here on the podium.’

The second race in Round 3 saw 17-year-old Parth Ghorpade from Pune take the chequered flag, improving on his third place podium finish in race one. Starting from fourth on the grid, he overtook pole-sitter Samyak Shah, completing the race in 26 minutes and 00.295 seconds. Sailesh Bolisetti, winner of race one, finished second followed by Mohd Fahad Kutty. Commenting on his win, Ghorpade said: ‘In qualifying our setup was not so good, but for the race the car felt really good. I am really happy with my performance today and to win my first Polo Cup race is a really special moment.’

Round 4 of the Volkswagen Polo Cup India 2010 is at Irungattukotal, Chennai over the weekend of 25-26 September. The series is run by Volkswagen India Motorsport in conjunction with JK Tyres. The field of 20 young racers drive identical and centrally-prepared 129bhp TDI Polo Cup cars.

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31 August 2010 ~ 0 Comments

Polo BlueMotion featured in Auto Express test of sub-100g/km busters

The latest version of the car that started the eco-car revolution, the Polo BlueMotion, has been tested along with 16 other eco-minded new cars in Auto Express’ round-up of sub-100g/km CO2 models. The UK motoring weekly has run the rule over all the road tax exempt eco contenders and spec tables include residual value forecasts, Euro NCAP crash test results and claimed economy figures. The Polo BlueMotion 1.2 TDI is compared with class rivals such as the Citroen C3 1.6 16v HDi Airdream+, Citroen DS3 DStyle 99g, Ford Fiesta Econetic 1.6 TDCi DPF, Peugeot 207 Economique 1.6 HDi, Renault Clio Extreme eco2 dCi 86 and Vauxhall Corsa S 1.3 CDTi ecoFLEX, as well as in-house sparring partner, the SEAT Ibiza SC 1.2 TDI Ecomotive. The sub-100g/km green car group test is in issue 1129 of Auto Express on sale now. Click here to read online.

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