PoloDriver

The BP Volkswagen rally team are celebrating their sixth consecutive national rally title after the Toyota Dealer Rally Gauteng on 15-16 October. The event was the final of an eight-round national championship that has proved one of the most punishing and challenging in recent memory. Not content with haranguing competitors throughout the year, the 2010 season had a final challenge and finish in store. The drama started early on day one when, in the third stage of the event, the championship leaders crashed out of contention. Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson were less than 500 metres into stage three, a reverse of the fearsome Gerotek Hillclimb course, when they went sliding off the stage into the bush, bringing their championship campaign to an abrupt end.

The focus of the event then shifted to Kuun and Hodgson’s rivals Johnny Gemmell and Drew Sturrock in their S2000 Castrol Toyota Auris. With a 21-point difference between the two, Gemmell and Sturrock needed to win the event if Gemmell was to win the championship. Tension throughout the service park ran high as the stage reports came in. It wasn’t going to go Gemmell’s way though as the two Ford entries were fighting hard and eventually claimed a one-two podium with Charl Wilken and Greg Godrich claiming victory and Conrad Rautenbach and Peter Marsh in second place. Gemmell’s teammate Leeroy Poulter and his navigator, Robert Paisley, claimed third place while Gemmell and Sturrock finished fourth.

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The latest issue of UK tuned Volkswagen magazine, Performance VW, features a 1979 Series 1 Derby. Nothing unusual in that you may think, but this Riad Yellow Polo saloon is based in the US; the Polo family has never been imported Stateside. Josh Paashaus owns the car and has transplanted a 6N2 Polo GTI 1.6-litre engine into the little notchback, putting out around 125bhp. With extra-large wheel arches covering wide wheels, the car looks fantastically retro but with a little extra menace. The November 2010 issue of Performance VW magazine (edition 169) is on sale now until 11 November.

[Image: Performance VW]

The latest version of the Polo BlueMotion is set to compete in the first RAC Future Car Challenge on Saturday 6 November. The RAC Future Car Challenge follows a route from Madeira Drive in Brighton to Pall Mall in London, during which the participating vehicles are measured for the energy they use. The winner is the vehicle found to have used the least energy on the 57-mile route. The first cars competing will depart from Brighton at 08:30 before making a brief stop at Central Sussex College in Crawley en route to the finish in Central London. Selected vehicles will then be on display in Regent Street from 12:45 to 16:00.

The 91g/km Polo BlueMotion will be joined by another super fuel-efficient production Volkswagen, the 99g/km Golf BlueMotion. Both use a series of aerodynamic and mechanical changes to maximise the efficiency of their refined common-rail TDI diesel engines. In the case of the Polo BlueMotion this results in combined economy of 80.7 mpg. Based on this figure, the Polo BlueMotion would complete the 57-mile run from Brighton to London using just 3.21 litres of  diesel (0.70 gallons) costing a total of £3.78 based on today’s average fuel prices.

Joining the trio and leading Volkswagen’s charge in in the event, the Golf blue-e-motion prototype will be making its debut in the UK. An electric vehicle developing 114bhp and 199lbs ft of torque through an electric motor which is powered by a series of lithium-ion batteries with a total capacity of 26.5 kilowatt hours, the Golf blue-e-motion can accelerate to 62mph in 11.8 seconds and also serves as an indication of the future direction of Volkswagen’s electric vehicle programme with the first production model planned to go on sale in 2013.

The rate of UK VAT will increase from 17.5% to 20% on 4 January 2011. Volkswagen has created an offer to help minimise the impact of this increase on the final price you’ll pay for your vehicle when it is delivered. If you order a new Volkswagen before 30 November 2010 and take delivery after 4 January 2011, VW will give you a 2.5% discount on the pre-VAT basic recommended retail price of the vehicle including factory fitted options. Contact your local Volkswagen retailer for more information.

Terms and conditions: This offer applies to vehicles ordered by 30 November 2010 and delivered and registered after 4 January 2011. At participating retailers only. This offer is not a VAT ‘Price Protection’ offer. The 2.5% discount is on the pre VAT basic retail price of the vehicle plus any factory fit options. This is available on retail sales only. All models are eligible. Volkswagen UK reserves the right to change/withdraw this offer as required. For more information on this UK-only offer and to arrange a test drive contact your local participating Volkswagen retailer by calling 0800 333 666.

[Source: Volkswagen UK]

As the new Polo GTI seems to be flavour of the month around these parts (and as it’s Friday), we’ve found a trio of videos featuring the new small car performance wonder. Our favourite has to be the – German language – onTrack circuit film around the 2.7km LUK test track in Baden Baden, Germany. The first time we’ve seen the new baby GTI driven around and through chicanes with anger, the tester describes it as classless and fun, and although it might be slower than a Mini Cooper Works (but faster than a Honda Civic Type R), he asks if lap times matter that much if you’re enjoying the drive? The second video is from Japan, and is largely useful for visual shots, with some on-road action thrown in. The third clip is a lap of the Nordschleife at full pelt, viewed from the passenger seat of the new 178bhp 1.4 TSI-powered GTI. Volkswagen’s Flash Red German-registered press Polo ‘WOB-NP 123′ must be one of the hardest-working cars in the business…