PoloDriver

The entry-level Polo Vivo and its more upmarket Polo 6R cousin have helped Volkswagen Group South Africa keep its top position in the passenger car sales market in October 2012. The Polo Vivo took a third of the company’s total sales, with 3341 cars sold, while the latest generation Polo 6R managed to find 2883 homes. Volkswagen Group South Africa sold 9426 units in total, giving it a market share of 22.6 per cent.

‘In October, the South African new car market surged to the third highest level on record despite widespread and ongoing socio-political uncertainties,’ said Mike Glendinning, Director, Sales and Marketing at Volkswagen Group South Africa. ‘The demand for new passenger cars has reached levels comparable with the peak of the previous growth cycle in the third quarter of 2006 and continues to be driven by powerful factors.’

Shrawan Raja of indianautosblog.com has spotted the Polo SR Edition, currently being shown at the Autocar Performance Show in India. Shown alongside a 178bhp TSI Polo R-Cup India racer, the Polo SR appears to be a special edition ‘concept’. Based on the regular five-door hatchback model, the updates appear to be purely cosmetic and include black-tinted headlights, front lip spoiler, side skirts, chrome rear strip, chrome-tipped exhaust, roof spoiler, and ‘SR’ badge. There are no official details from Volkswagen on technical specifications, possible release dates or prices.

[Source and images: Shrawan Raja/indianautosblog.com]

The final race weekend of the South African 2012 Engen Volkswagen Cup on 27-28 October saw 16 year-old Kelvin van der Linde claim the championship title in his Ferodo Racing Polo Vivo. He also became the youngest racing driver in South Africa to win a national circuit racing title – an impressive feat considering that the young driver has only been competing in the national Volkswagen series for just two seasons.

‘We haven’t had an easy season. We had two retirements in Cape Town,’ said Van der Linde. ‘That affected our spirits, but we had to get back up and perform – which we did this weekend. We were leading the championship so anything was possible and it worked in our favour.’ Van der Linde had a flawless drive at the Kyalami circuit, taking victory in both races in the biggest field of competition in the WesBank Super Series.

Just behind Van der Linde in the championship table is 2011 title holder Devin Robertson, while Jordan Pepper took the final spot on the awards podium. Other accolades announced was The Rookie of the Year title taken by Jordan Pepper, who also won the Most Improved Driver award. Nathan’s Motorsport was presented with the Volkswagen Spirit Award and Big Boss Auto received the Volkswagen Team Award.

The 2012 Engen Volkswagen Cup series has seen grids with as many as 35 cars on the starting line. The final round of the season proved no less popular with 31 Engen Volkswagen Cup Polo Vivo race cars entered for the Kyalami event. For 16 years the Engen Volkswagen Cup has provided national motorsport action in South Africa, with the 2012 season being one of the best to date. The 2013 season is expected to be just as exciting.

RACE RESULTS
Race 1
1 Kelvin van der Linde (31: Ferodo Racing)
2 Kyle Barnes (4: Gold Liberations/Conti Partner)
3 Jordan Pepper (46: PG Glass)

Race 2
1 Kelvin van der Linde (31: Ferodo Racing)
2 Jordan Pepper (46: PG Glass)
3 Kyle Barnes (4: Gold Liberations Conti Partner)

Overall
1 Kelvin van der Linde (31: Ferodo Racing)
2 Jordan Pepper (46: PG Glass)
3 Kyle Barnes (4: Gold Liberations Conti Partner)

Volkswagen Motorsport once again took to the rally stages on the Rally Italia Sardegna on 18-21 October, and once again Sébastien Ogier turned the tables on the established WRC competition in his Škoda Fabia S2000. Outperforming the entire group of the WRC competitors on the fifth special stage with a time of 10m 16.1s, Ogier, along with co-driver Julien Ingrassia, finished in fifth place overall in Sardinia, as well as claiming the best position to have ever been achieved by an S2000-class car on an FIA World Rally Championship event.

‘All the teams had opted for soft tyres in the morning. Before starting on the special stage I noticed that the tyres of the WRC cars had already heavily worn – I knew that this was the chance of clinching a very good result. I tried to take it easy on my tyres while being as fast as possible,’ revealed Ogier. The 28-year-old continued to maintain a fast pace and from the eighth to the eleventh special stage, was running in fourth place among the more powerful WRC competitors. After having dropped to sixth place in-between, Ogier launched a final attack on Saturday afternoon and on the 14th special stage took position five.

The French duo’s team mates Andreas Mikkelsen and Ola Fløene completed the strong Volkswagen Motorsport performance on the Costa Smeralda by taking seventh place, scoring WRC points for the second time in 2012. ‘An outstanding showing by Sébastien underlines his class as a driver and his cleverness. He recognised the situation that the tracks in Sardinia at times put a very heavy strain on the tyres and made perfect use of it. The engineers and mechanics also provided both driver pairings with perfect cars through the entire rally,’ said an enthused and very pleased Volkswagen Motorsport Director Jost Capito.

Over the weekend of 13-14 October Ameya Walavalkar and Rahil Noorani crossed the finish line first, taking the chequered flag in the two races of the Volkswagen Polo R-Cup India. Championship leader Walavalkar had a good fast start in the first heat, overtaking pole-sitter Avdumber Hede, as well as Saurav Bandopadhyay. He was also on the podium for the second race, finishing second, from an eighth place start.

Noorani took victory, though, helped by Akhil Khushlani being imposed a 20-second time penalty for jump-starting at the start of the race. The second podium of the penultimate race weekend was rounded out by last year’s champion, Vishnu Prasad. Volkswagen India Motorsport runs the six-round Polo R Cup India 2012 series in conjunction with JK Tyres. The field of 20 young Indian racers drive identical and centrally prepared 1.4-litre TSI-engined, 178bhp Polo R Cup cars, new to the 2012 series.