PoloDriver

With the 2012 FIA World Rally Championship now at a close, it was a mixed last round for Volkswagen Motorsport’s pair of Škoda Fabia S2000s. Rally Spain (8-11 November) saw a retirement at the end of the first day for Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, while Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion Andreas Mikkelsen and his co-driver Ola Fløene finished 21st after day one’s stages due to an accident. Following the cermonial start in Barcelona, slippery conditions on gravel and tarmac made life difficult for the drivers, but both Ogier and Mikkelsen admirably closed the gap between their S2000 cars and the more powerful WRC racers.

Volkswagen Motorsport then started to run out of luck. Ogier and Ingrassia’s bonnet lifted, losing them time, and shortly afterwards Mikkelsen and Fløene were struck by Petter Solberg and Thierry Neuville, damaging their suspension. Just after the start of Special Stage 6, Ogier and Ingrassia had to retire due to a drivetrain fault, and although Mikkelsen and Fløene completed the event to Rally 2 regulations, they did gather valuable experience for 2013. Although their rally pairing ended this season, Mikkelsen hopes to be named the third Polo driver for Volkswagen Motorsport’s assault on the 2013 WRC rounds, alongside Ogier and Finn Jari-Matti Latvala.

‘At “Monte” at the beginning of the year we crashed, and now at the season finale we have had technical problems. Other than that, the season went superbly,’ said Ogier, expressing his satisfaction with his first year for Volkswagen. ‘And, honestly speaking, I’m also proud of ten class victories. Whenever we saw the finish we were the quickest S2000 car. But I’m also glad that the year of transition is over. Now I’m incredibly excited about the beginning of the hot phase with the Polo R WRC – and about being able to compete with the top-flight drivers again at Rallye Monte Carlo.’

Volkswagen Junior Andreas Mikkelsen assessed the season in a positive light as well. ‘For me, it’s been a brilliant year. Of course I’m proud to be the first driver in history to have defended my IRC title,’ says the pleased Norwegian. ‘And the year with Volkswagen was enormously important for me, too. Driving in such a large team and getting to know the processes was completely new to me. I’m happy that I received good feedback from the team and very much hope to become the third Volkswagen WRC driver next year.’

Before the start of the ‘Monte’, the Volkswagen Motorsport team will head to Mexico, France and Sweden to push the Polo R WRC still further. The 300bhp, four-wheel drive, 1.6-litre rally car will make its much-aniticipated and long-awaited competitive debut on the Rallye Monte Carlo on 15 January 2013. All eyes will, finally, be watching it.

Volkswagen India is reported to be introducing a sporting diesel variant of the Polo in 2013, according to indianautosblog.com and autocarindia.com. Rumoured to be named ‘GTD’ as with the outgoing Mk 6 Golf, the Polo GTD will reportedly be fitted with the 1.6-litre 104bhp engine currently used in its sister, the Vento (a Polo 6R-based booted saloon). With 250Nm of torque it should be quite a flier. The fitment of a newly-developed 1.5-litre unit currently under development is also mooted, and as cars sold in India with engines under 1.5 litres are subject to a tax benefit of 12 per cent, it would make sense for the company to wait. Eight out of ten Polos sold in India are diesels.

[Source: Indian Autos Blog]

Rich Gooding’s 2001 Polo GTI has had an eventful couple of months. First, new boots and a health check, then a change in regular usage. Are the now noticeable rattles a sign of protest?

Life for Y464 GHJ has just got calmer, or tougher, depending on how you look at it. I’ve just taken a new magazine designer full-time job, and, if you’re a glass half-empty person, you’d say that the more regular use the car will get is a bad thing. But, if you’re a glass half-full kind of being, then the fewer miles it will do on more regular trips will be a good thing. I’d like to think that I’m the latter, but the more regular use does worry ever so slightly. Still, the miles will be much fewer each day: 50 daily miles in total to my new office, compared to 170 miles per day when I was heading to Bauer Media in Peterborough.

So, as you can see from the pictures, the new daily, five-times-a-week commute will probably mean me spending more intimate time with Messrs Bucket, Sponge and Shampoo. And I have noticed, the Polo takes a lot more scrubbing when it’s dirty, even if it doesn’t look that dirty. One thing I will have to look for in the near future is rattles. Y464 seems to have become infested with the things, coming from the nearside front air vent, the dashboard, and, most annoyingly, the passenger seat area. It’s this last one which is the most frustrating, because, a) I can’t see where it’s coming from, and b) it’s quite a loud plastic-on-another-material-type noise. And honestly, it’s really quite literally driving me nuts.

I thought it may have been down the two new tyres I’ve had fitted in the intervening two months since the last report (the old fronts were shifted to the rear). But, no, I don’t think it’s that simple. They’ve had time to bed in a little now in any case. While the wheels were off and the tyres removed, I had the one wheel which was kerbed refurbished, so once again, I have a ‘clean’ set with no damage. Let’s hope it stays that way. Otherwise, nothing else to report. The gearbox is the least enjoyable part of the car, as sometimes it’s just downright reluctant to do what you want it to, which suggests a bush kit, or something maybe a little more major. Like I said, glass half-empty, or glass half-full…

It may have slipped one place down the charts, but the Polo remained in the UK’s top 10 best-selling cars during October. Rounding out the top 10 in 10th place, the Polo sold 2952 units according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Registrations rose by 12.1 per cent in October, and the demand for small cars saw an upturn, with the Polo’s supermini segment growing by 5.8 per cent. Once again, the Ford Fiesta was October’s best-selling car and the year-to-date.

‘Despite uncertainty in the European economy, the UK new car market continues to grow, with registrations rising to 151,252 units in October,’ said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive. ‘It is encouraging to see the alternatively-fuelled vehicle market performing strongly, too, up 13 per cent so far this year. It is vital that government sustains its consumer incentive programme and maximises the benefits available through the vehicle taxation system.’ The UK’s top 10 best-selling passenger cars during October 2012 and for the year-to-date (unit sales figure and position in brackets) are as follows:

1 Ford Fiesta: 8058 (96,805, 1st)
2 Vauxhall Corsa: 6285 (78,760, 2nd)
3 Ford Focus: 5834 (70,335, 3rd)
4 Vauxhall Astra: 5754 (52,879, 5th)
5 Volkswagen Golf: 4158 (54,300, 4th)
6 BMW 3 Series: 3762 (38,102, 7th)
7 Nissan Qashqai: 3567 (39,432, 6th)
8 BMW 1 Series: 3029
9 Mini: 2970
10 Volkswagen Polo: 2952 (36,939, 8th)

(The 2012 year-to-date top 10 best-selling cars absent from October’s sales figures are the Mercedes C-Class in ninth place with 32,427 units sold and the Fiat 500, selling 29,215 units in tenth place.)

Finally, good luck has shone on the South African BP Volkswagen rally team. Claiming the top two finishing positions on the Garden Route Rally on 2-4 November, the result marks a siginificant upturn in luck for the Polo S2000-based team, who have endured a disappointing season of mid-table and non-finishes. Hans Weijs Jnr and Björn Degandt rallied home in first place. Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson came second.

Weijs Jnr and Degandt claimed three stage wins (out of an available five) on the first day of the event, and carried on their positive streak into Saturday, to finish first on four out of six stages. ‘I wanted the best result I could get after the puncture on Friday,’ says Weijs. ‘We claimed more than three minutes back, the stage times were perfect. We pushed really hard, and we took it to the limit at this event,’ enthused Weijs Jnr.

Kuun and Hodgson pushed hard, too, not that it showed. Gracefully tackling each stage consistently and commandingly, Kuun was especially pleased with his and Hodgson’s event outcome: ‘It has been a difficult year for all of us, and it is nice to bring this result home. The team have been putting in a lot of hard work and this shows that with the depth of talent and skill we have available, we can pull it all together.’

Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries didn’t enjoy such good luck, but the pair started well. They were in the top five on four of the first six stages, but were eliminated from the event on stage seven and could not complete their rally. Meanwhile, the Polo S2000 of Japie van Niekerk and Gerhard Snyman produced a good sixth place, besting some tough rally conditions that saw many of the competitors suffer problems.

Van Niekerk and Snyman finished just ahead of the BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo S2000 of Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin, who had already claimed 2012’s S2000 Challenge title, but won the same category on the Garden Route Rally, as well as grabbing a seventh place overall finish, bringing their car home more than three minutes ahead of their nearest class rivals. Further down the field, the BP Volkswagen Polo Vivo S1600 of Megan Verlaque and Hilton Auffray snatched fifth place in the S1600 car class.

The 11-stage Garden Route event saw competitors finish the 2012 season in the picturesque Wilderness and Knysna area, and witnessed some stellar rally performances. Drawing the curtain on the 2012 season, it also hints at an exciting and demanding 2013. The final results mark not only the BP Volkswagen team’s strengths in bringing the new BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 up to pace to compete successfully on a national championship level, but also holds the promise for what the coming season holds.