RE: My First Car: VW Polo G40

[ExPat2B]

I too belived the hype about the engine ( it is a masterwork..if you look at the torque and bhp lines on a dyno you can put a ruler down them ) and the driving experience and looked seriously at them.

I test drive 3 including a 40,000 mile enthusist example ( he wanted 7k for it ) and my conclusions were as follows :

Engine was only good part.
Brakes : ste, wooden, ineffective and 15 years out of date.
Gearbox : ste, like strirring porridge.
Suspension : rattly, crashy, flimsy, skipped over bumps, very poor compared to the slickness of the GTI or Corrado.
Interior : horrid.

I have never, ever understood the hype behind them. Surely a quick back to back comparison to a decent hatch or coupe for anyone would show them up for being terible ?

[CrashTD]

ExPat2B said:

Surely a quick back to back comparison to a decent hatch or coupe for anyone would show them up for being terible ?

I could be here all day and still not give you one good reason why owning a G40 is a logical choice. However I could spend days telling you how good a laugh they are.

check out www.clubg40.co.uk

[nivlac]

do like these cars but expect it would cost a bit to maintain. i had a friend with a g60 and it blew a supercharger end generally cost him a fortune.

[sleep envy]

missing the VR6 said:

Funny thing is I had a Corrado G60 which I bought as I couldn't afford a VR6, ended up spending enough to have bought a VR6 Storm just to keep it on the road!

Not the best vehicles supercharged dubs

eh?

mine was very reliable although it was juicy

[jumpingloci]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies. Yeah in many ways I wish I'd never have sold her. I've had a couple of hot hatches since, and while objectively all better cars, none have had the charm of the G40. Sure, it never was the best, far from it, but for some reason - maybe the way the sombre looks neatly disguised the healthy performance - it was more endearing than any of them. I'd have another in a heartbeat.

As for insurance I reckon it was a nudge under a grand. Sounds a lot now but when you're young and foolish it all seems to make sense. Group 13 if I remember correctly, which was helped by me being 21 at the time. Oh wait... I think that was only for a ten, not twelve, months policy. So that's where the student loan went.

Nathan

[pointer78]

ExPat2B said:

I too belived the hype about the engine ( it is a masterwork..if you look at the torque and bhp lines on a dyno you can put a ruler down them ) and the driving experience and looked seriously at them.

I test drive 3 including a 40,000 mile enthusist example ( he wanted 7k for it ) and my conclusions were as follows :

Engine was only good part.
Brakes : ste, wooden, ineffective and 15 years out of date.
Gearbox : ste, like strirring porridge.
Suspension : rattly, crashy, flimsy, skipped over bumps, very poor compared to the slickness of the GTI or Corrado.
Interior : horrid.

I have never, ever understood the hype behind them. Surely a quick back to back comparison to a decent hatch or coupe for anyone would show them up for being terible ?
or - I always liked the fit of the seats, the design on them is a bit weird, but then it is from 1990

You have to look at the car as being a complete sleeper, the differences between a standard polo and the G40 are quite subtle (on the exterior). small badges, side strips and the VW 80's black plastic wheel arches are pretty much it. I think this is what made it such fun, especially when out accelerating the majority of hatches on the road....

Having said this I have to agree on:

Brakes - rubbish as standard - this thing has drums on the rear, jumping in it after driving a modern car is scary!
Interior - I always liked the fit of the seats, the design on them is a bit weird, but then it is from 1990

Edited by pointer78 on Tuesday 2nd September 09:07

[missing the VR6]

sleep envy said:

missing the VR6 said:

Funny thing is I had a Corrado G60 which I bought as I couldn't afford a VR6, ended up spending enough to have bought a VR6 Storm just to keep it on the road!

Not the best vehicles supercharged dubs

eh?

mine was very reliable although it was juicy

Maybe I had a very bad experience but with mine but in the space of a year I had 2 bottom ends go and the charger, along with various other issues, which culminated in an engine fire.
Mine was dyno'd at 201 BHP and according to the MFA the best fuel consumption I got was 17mpg driving sensibly!

[mazdaman]

I take it the G40 actually had servo assisted brakes?
I had 2 1.3 Polo's and neither of them had a servo
Most scary indeed.

[hayesey]

woohoo, an article about G40s!

I've owned mine since 2003 and have loved every minute of it really. It's mainly used as a track day car now and stays in my garage during the week. I would say the most expensive part of owning one is the fact that it's way too tempting to spend money on making it go faster, especially since like a turbo engine, you get good gains for little money. Well up to about 160bhp anyway.

I'm currently in the process of converting mine to turbo using a K03 from a 1.9 20v turbo passat. It's a quite a popular conversion these days as the turbos can take more abuse than the g-lader and are easily found a lot cheaper if they do blow up. The g40 g-lader is quite reliable though, you just have to keep it serviced regularly (which vw themselves don't do, they will just want to sell you a new unit at about £1800 when it starts wearing out). There are plenty of companies who will do servicing though. The turbo will make higher boost levels too, you can fit a 65mm pulley to the g-lader for about 0.9 - 1.1 bar of boost (depending on the engine spec) but beyond that (using smaller pullies for more boost) you are over-revving the charger too much which has been costly for people in the past. A mate of mine with a K03 and nitrous got about 225bhp out of his and did a 13.1 sec quarter mile at santa pod earlier this year in it. He also has a lot of chassis mods though in order to get the power down (as I have in mine too).

http://www.polog40.co.uk (also on http://www.clubg40.co.uk) is the official uk owners club which I co-run with two other people. Check out the forums on there for more g40 related banter.

Edited by hayesey on Tuesday 2nd September 10:13

[hayesey]

mazdaman said:

I take it the G40 actually had servo assisted brakes?
I had 2 1.3 Polo's and neither of them had a servo
Most scary indeed.

yes they have small servos. The brakes are 239mm vented, exactly the same brakes as on a mk1 golf gti, except the servo is smaller. They work Ok in good condition but due to having a small servo require a fair bit of leg-effort. They are far from great though, I've replaced mine with 256mm discs and wilwood four pot calipers which work well on track. With the standard setup I've pretty much literally set the pads on fire before!

[Tino]

ExPat2B said:

I too belived the hype about the engine ( it is a masterwork..if you look at the torque and bhp lines on a dyno you can put a ruler down them ) and the driving experience and looked seriously at them.

I test drive 3 including a 40,000 mile enthusist example ( he wanted 7k for it ) and my conclusions were as follows :

Engine was only good part.
Brakes : ste, wooden, ineffective and 15 years out of date.
Gearbox : ste, like strirring porridge.
Suspension : rattly, crashy, flimsy, skipped over bumps, very poor compared to the slickness of the GTI or Corrado.
Interior : horrid.

I have never, ever understood the hype behind them. Surely a quick back to back comparison to a decent hatch or coupe for anyone would show them up for being terible ?

I agree, the brakes when you first drive a G40 are scary, but you get used to them and learn to drive the car to the brakes ability. You can go huge conversions, but just replacing the master cylinder with a Golf GTI 16v is a very effective and cheap mod.
The gearbox is a direct bar link, so its in no way like stirring possidge. I find it very direct and positive(far more than my wifes cable change box in her corrado)
Suspension, well it is a basic 1970's design, but having said that, its no more crashy than the Fiat uno's or the R5GTT of its time. Possibly not as good as a GTI, but wasn't that a slightly bigger and heavier(and slower) car?
As for the interior, mine has 120k, the seat bolsters, backs etc are all intact. There are very few rattles from the dash, everything works as it should. I actually think its quite a nice place to be, basic but pleasant enough(don't forget when the car was built) Show me a ford, renault etc of the same era with original seats that haven't sagged(if the car hasn't rusted away).The early corrados dash wasn't amazing, neither was the MK2 golf(or the MK3 for that matter)

[easter]

bought a minter 5 yrs ago with 80k one ower ..sold it 3yrs ago ...miss it dearly was a great car which was super rare and always got 100% respect from any vw owner ...used to just have the polo badge on it with no g40 badges ...was even better when someone spotted what it was ...now have a e46 m3 ...but dont love that as much as my old g40 ...classic

[Munch]

have had mine for about 3 years now (1 and half of thoose it has been of the road due to an engine conversion. but what a hoot it was (and will be once its found its home in a new shell) there isn't a trip i take in any of the cars i've owned since that i don't think "this drive would be so much better in the G40."

They just have something about them where its the total sleeper look they have (surprised few BMW's on the motorway) or its easiness to drive around town (for a tuned car it wasn't to bad) or maybe it's the fact that not one of them (that i've driven anyway) are the same they all have there little quirk's. But there was just something about them, and once you've been biten its hard to lose thoose G-Lader smiles.

Just can't wait till mine is done and i can get on the b-roads and give it a good blast.

Munch

[joz8968]

ExPat2B said:

I too belived the hype about the engine ( it is a masterwork..if you look at the torque and bhp lines on a dyno you can put a ruler down them ) and the driving experience and looked seriously at them.

I test drive 3 including a 40,000 mile enthusist example ( he wanted 7k for it ) and my conclusions were as follows :

Engine was only good part.
Brakes : ste, wooden, ineffective and 15 years out of date.
Gearbox : ste, like strirring porridge.
Suspension : rattly, crashy, flimsy, skipped over bumps, very poor compared to the slickness of the GTI or Corrado.
Interior : horrid.

I have never, ever understood the hype behind them. Surely a quick back to back comparison to a decent hatch or coupe for anyone would show them up for being terible ?

Never driven one, but these sentiments echo what Performance Car had to say about it - in a group test with the 5 GT turbo, 205 GTI 1.9 and Clio 16V - way back in 92 or 93.

Edited by joz8968 on Tuesday 2nd September 15:10

[pugwash4x4]

i had one of these as my first proper car when i managed to talk my way into t a cushy job in the Alps

I remember being told how quick it was up and down the mountain roads. I didn't understand for ages until i realised that the shallow pedal travel wasn't the floor but a detent that you pushed past to engage the supercharger.

It was a lot of fun

i was 18

i wrote it off

they bought me a impreaz STi!!

i was happy

[DamonDash]

pugwash4x4 said:

the shallow pedal travel wasn't the floor but a detent that you pushed past to engage the supercharger.

watchoo talkin bout willis???

[pugwash4x4]

it was a swiss G40 polo coupe

there was definitely a point on the pedal travel that you had to push past where something started to happen.

is this not usual?

[DELTAHPE]

[quote=hill79and praise their willingness to use slightly out of the ordinary designs (the vr6 for example) the G-Lader is actually based on a french design from somewhere around 1900 (IIRC!)
[/quote]

VR6 just an update of Lancias narrow V concept originating in late 1910s or early 1920s and used in Lancias up until the brilliant Fulvia first produced in 1963 and alst produced in mid 70s. Not very innovative these Germans!

[Tino]

pugwash4x4 said:

it was a swiss G40 polo coupe

there was definitely a point on the pedal travel that you had to push past where something started to happen.

is this not usual?

There is a point where there is more resistance, its where the bypass valve starts to close, forcing the charger air into the throttle body.

[Gad-Westy]

I had a love affair with these things for years. In fact I think I still do. Its definitly the "what the hell is in that?" element that appeals most. I had the opportunity to drive a pretty tired one a while ago that I was thinking of buying for a bit of a project. It was pretty crude to drive. Basically, it felt exactly like a normal Polo but with 3x the power which was enourmous fun. I didn't buy that car in the end but I still keep wondering about getting one, getting it really tidy but in a run of the mill colour (white would be perfect) and removing all the badges. I understand there are a few things that can be done to make them handle and stop as well.

I'm off to look at the classifieds.