Limited-run 220hp VW Polo stars at Worthersee meet
Polo WRC Street will see production in small numbers from 2013
The GTI meeting at Worthersee in Austria is a bit of a Mecca for fans of fast VWs, and Volkswagen often uses the event to unveil a tasty concept or two.
This year, one of the main stories in VW world is the imminent arrival on the WRC scene of the new Polo R-WRC, which will start its competition career in 2013.
But as well as the WRC car, VW has brought along this to Worthersee, the Polo WRC Street concept.
This WRC-inspired hot hatch isn't just a marketing exercise, either; you'll be able to buy one towards the end of 2013, powered by a 220hp 2.0-litre TSI engine. And the good news for fans of fast Polos doesn't stop there: word has it that the Polo WRC street will eventually be joined by an even hotter 'R' version in due course.
Considering it took Citroen more than a decade and the arrival of the DS3 Racing to do anything more racy than a bit of cosmetic tweakery to capitalise on its rallying successes, it's good to see VW apparently so keen to give the car-buying public a little bit of the WRC love...
The Polo GTI has been rather tarnished by the seemingly recurring oil consumption and transmission issues sadly.
I love the basic polo though, had one as a rental car with the 1.4 petrol, thought it was superb, very chuckable. Only criticism I had was that it liked to jump going into first gear, but I think the hill hold assist may have had something to do with that.
Would seriously consider a polo R or similar if they can use a decent engine and give it 4wd.
...a polo wih 220Bhp...i remeber being impressed by a mate who had a 1.4...surely this is, say, 100bhp too much for a car like this? Why not go the whole hog and drop a V8 in it and do a factory supercharger conversion....
Not a bad effort in my opinion, should be fast especially once mapped.
Small cars are not really small any more as has been said but its got to the point where this car is similar in size and performance to a MK1 Focus RS or at least it looks that way. The prices seem to reflect this too with most manufacturers......
...a polo wih 220Bhp...i remeber being impressed by a mate who had a 1.4...surely this is, say, 100bhp too much for a car like this? Why not go the whole hog and drop a V8 in it and do a factory supercharger conversion....
Certainly not 100bhp too much. I've got the Fabia rather than the Polo GTi, and the chassis copes fine with 180bhp. Remember that as well as being bigger than a mk1 Golf, modern cars are heavier due to all the safety kit (and doors with more strength than tinfoil unlike the old fast Pugs )
