Volkswagen confirms new hot Polo

VOLKSWAGEN has previewed its hottest road-going Polo yet with the Polo R WRC Street concept at the Worthersee tuning festival in Austria.

The concept previews a forthcoming flagship variant – likely called Polo R – which Volkswagen has confirmed will be launched towards the end of next year.

Power comes from a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine producing 162kW, which is not only 30kW more than the Polo GTI, currently the hottest member of VW’s light-car range, but 7kW more than the Polo’s larger Golf GTI sibling.

Volkswagen has not confirmed that the flagship Polo will wear ‘R’ badges, as widely speculated, joining Golf and Scirocco variants with the same nomenclature.

As the concept’s name suggests, it is inspired by the Polo WRC race car, which Volkswagen will enter in the World Rally Championship from next year.

To this end, the road-going concept features unique WRC logos inside and out, and is finished in the same blue and white paint job as the fully fledged rally machine.



From top: R WRC Street interior, Golf Black Concept, Golf ConceptWhite and Golf Cabriolet GTI.

Setting the WRC Street further apart from its more humble Polo siblings are a subtle rear spoiler, black rear diffuser, lowered sports suspension, meaty wheelarches finished in glossy black, and 14-spoke alloy wheels covering blue brake callipers.

An interior shot of the concept shows a familiar Polo interior with blue-stitched leather/suede sports seats and a race steering wheel with paddle-shifters for the DSG transmission.

Also on display at Worthersee was a running prototype of the WRC rally car ahead of its competition debut, powered by a tuned 1.6-litre engine with around 220kW that pushes the car from 0-100km/h in 4.1 seconds.

The VW Group-organised annual meet also saw the debut of two special Golf GTI concepts – the ConceptWhite and Black Dynamic.

The ConceptWhite ‘design study’ sports unique Oryx white matte paint, black/red contrasting interior, Nappa sports seats and white door sill trim.

The Black Dynamic is the work of nine VW apprentices – four female and five male – and features an 1800-watt sound system in place of the cargo area, black-and-red paint scheme and super-low suspension.

The final VW model on display in Worthersee was the Golf GTI Cabriolet, following its public debut at the Geneva motor show in March.

As we have reported, the 155kW/280Nm flagship soft-top is under consideration for launch in Australia, joining the hatch version that accounts for around a quarter of total Golf hatch sales.