PoloDriver

PoloDriver.com editor Rich Gooding tells the story of how an original 1970s Polo ended up being parked on the Cartier Style et Luxe lawn at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed

The words ‘Polo’ and ‘Goodwood Festival of Speed’ rarely, if ever, appear in the same sentence. So it was with great excitement that I opened an email from one of the organising team of the UK’s – the world’s – greatest motorsport festival.

In addition to the obvious action of cars speeding up the hill in front of Goodwood House, the four-day event has static displays, too, the most prestigious area being the Cartier Style et Luxe lawn, which usually features priceless supercars and vintage machinery on the grass next to Lord March’s country house. For 2024, one section of the lawn was to celebrate the work of car designer Marcello Gandini, who worked for Italian styling house Bertone, and was said to have had a hand in the Audi 50 of 1974, which became the original Volkswagen Polo.

Unmolested example
I feel this may be too laboured a point, as numerous stories haven’t confirmed the authenticity of this claim, but Goodwood wanted a car for the lawn, so around two months before the event, tasked me with the task of finding an unmolested example of Volkswagen’s pretty 1970s supermini. One lead sadly didn’t happen, so a post on a couple of now almost-defunct Polo forums resulted in Stuart Turner’s gorgeous 84,000-mile Manila Green 1977 Polo L being picked for the event.

Having seen it on Thursday 11 July when the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed opened its gates, the car looked perfect, with all the period details present and correct. Stuart has done a fantastic job in restoring the car to a period specification and, placed near one entrance/exit gate, it was attracting as much attention as the Lamborghini Miura and Countach parked just a few feet away.

It has been a genuine honour to see a Polo at such a prestigious event, and if you’d like to catch a glimpse of Stuart’s immaculate Polo at Goodwood, head to the Cartier Style et Luxe lawn. The 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed started on 11 July, and runs through the rest of the weekend of 13-14 July at the Goodwood Estate near Chichester in the UK.

Long-standing and well-known Volkswagen parts supplier Heritage Parts Centre is now reproducing windscreen seals for the first-generation Polo and Audi 50. As the early cars now attract a growing following and original parts becoming rarer, Heritage is using an OE quality manufacturer to faithfully reproduce the front windscreen seal for chrome trim.

Priced at £44.95 and sold under part number 863-845-121/B, Heritage can also supply the correct and corresponding chrome trim, as well as the joining piece if required. For more details, call Heritage Parts Centre on 01273 444000, email sales@heritagepartscentre.com or visit heritagepartscentre.com.

We thought the AutoMuseum Volkswagen had enough ‘old timer’ Polos in its collection, but we’ve recently heard that another has joined the ranks. Michael Dreisbach’s immaculate Riad Yellow Series 1 Polo L has been installed in VW’s oldest car museum in Dieselstrasse, Wolfsburg (the AutoMuseum Volkswagen opened in 1985) on a temporary loan. The Polo made the 400km journey from Michael’s home under its own steam and without problems. Audi-50.de reports that there should be a news item on the latest acquisition soon on the AutoMuseum Volkswagen website. We’re hopping across to Wolfsburg in the next few weeks as part of a pan-German trip, so we’ll keep an eye out for the latest arrival when we visit.

[Source: Audi-50.de]

With an estate-like rear end with long rear windows, the Series 2 Polo from 1981 was never a pretty car like the Series 1 from 1975, at least not until the coupé came along two years later. But, what would the Series 1 Polo have looked like if Volkswagen had been Series 2 radical a decade earlier? Over on Flickr, Littlepixel™ has been designing what he calls ‘Photochop’ cars since 2001, and his range of ‘chops include four Series 1 Polo-related models; a rally-inspired Audi 50 quattro, an Audi 50 saloon (think rebadged Volkswagen Derby), and ‘breadvan’ and Dodge Charger-inspired Series 1 Polos. Modified from the original press shots, we think they’re neat, and a glimpse as to what could have been. Head over to Flickr to see both Littlepixel™’s profile and his ‘chops photostream.

German car magazine Auto Bild has achieved the obvious and brought together the Audi 50 and A1 in its latest issue. We’re surprised that no-one has done it sooner. Comparing the two small cars with the same big idea is interesting to see, and the chaps at Auto Bild have tracked down an unbelievably immaculate Marino Yellow 50 for the meeting with its grandson. With its green interior, the 1974 Audi really is a time machine, and with that pretty, pretty body, the one that we’d pick from the two. Auto Bild’s UK sister title Auto Express has some photos from the comparison in issue 1,126 on sale now. Find the original Auto Bild test and photo gallery here (English translation on this link).

[Image: Auto Bild]