PoloDriver

Once again it was a grueling two days of motorsport for the BP Volkswagen rally team, as the Polo S2000s tackled the Toyota Dealer Rally Gauteng on 23-24 June. Punctures affected almost every competitor, and both the cars of Enzo Kuun/Guy Hodgson and Hergen Fekken/Pierre Arries were forced to pull over six kilometres into the first stage and change tyres. The soft nature of the stage environment also meant that the swaps themselves were made all the more difficult, and both pairings lost valuable time. Hans Weijs Jnr/Björn Degandt managed to avoid the flat tyre, but were held up by thick dust which followed in the wake of the slower competitors. It cost the duo dearly – two minutes were lost, time they only managed to claw back in stage three.

The pair were to suffer another bout of bad luck, though, when in stage nine, a puncture finally caught up with them, leaving them no choice but to enther the final stage with an insurmountable time deficit. It wasn’t all bad news, though, as they finished the event in a respectable fifth place. Kuun/Hodgson suffered two further punctures on the penultimate stage, leaving them with no tyres on which to complete the open section on the final stage, forcing a reluctant retirement. Fekken/Arries finished 14th overall, after deciding to compete in the Super Rally on the Saturday, rising from a 26th place starting position.

‘It has been a disappointing weekend after weeks of hard work by the entire BP Volkswagen rally team,’ said head of Volkswagen Motorsport, Mike Rowe. ‘Factors completely out of the team’s control, including roads that were unfit for rally cars, made the weekend what is was, but we used the opportunity to make massive strides with the new BP Volkswagen Polo S2000. That is a significant reward, even if it does not reflect in the standings after this event. We remain optimistic and confident that the BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 will deliver on the results we all know it is capable of.’

Lower down the orders, Gugu Zulu/Carl Peskin finished 8th overall in their Polo Vivo S2000, taking a S2000 Challenge victory in the process, thanks to a finishing time more than 20 minutes ahead of their class rivals. Megan Verlaque/Hilton Auffray posted the fastest time in the S1600 class, to lead their rivals by 28 seconds. Sadly, they had to retire close to the end of the second stage. The BP Volkswagen rally team is now focusing its attention on its home event, the Volkswagen Rally, taking place on the Eastern Cape on 13-14 July.

Round five of the Engen Volkswagen Cup took place as part of the TopGear Festival in Durban, South Africa, on 16-17 June, with Kelvin van der Linde and Kyle Barnes snatched the victories of the two-day meeting. A grueling event, an absence of run-off areas and a track ringed with concrete barriers took its toll on the other competitors. Early casualties Adrian Wood and Mark Silverwood each made an unscheduled – and unwanted – excursion into a wall during a practice session. Wood was able to rebuild his car but Silverwood did not have the option to, and was nursing an injury (as he finished learn first aid skills recently) after his incident.

Wood also snapped a shock absorber – the only part of the car affected by the incident with the wall that wasn’t replaced. This saw him with even more work to do in order to compete in the second race – he couldn’t compete in the first race on the Saturday. Up at the front of the field Kelvin van der Linde was only interested in winning, so he could extend his championship lead. Kyle Barnes started from second and, while he kept his eyes open for a potential gap so he could overtake Van der Linde, he held his second place position throughout the race to guarantee a valuable haul of points, rather than risk both his race car and his points. Defending champion Devin Robertson was definitely among those opting for the cautious approach in the first race by letting both Mathew Hodges and Kosie Weyers challenge for position, the trio finishing third, fourth and fifth respectively.

In race two on Sunday, a grid of 22 enthusiastic Engen Volkswagen Cup racers were ready to put their Polo Vivo racers through their paces. The field tackled the 10-lap race under conditions that were not conducive to bold overtaking. This did not stop Robertson, though, from making a brave move to pass Weyers at the end of the main straight, diving through the turn to snatch third place. This was not a position Weyers was going to be able to take back and he finished behind Robertson who, in turn, crossed the finish line behind race winner Barnes and Van der Linde.

For invitational driver, journalist Sudhir Matai from Car magazine, the Durban event was a highlight for this season. Matai raced in front of his home crowd – and his family – recording a second-place finish in the Masters (rookie) class in race two into the deal. Van der Linde and Barnes swapped race wins in Durban – and this will help further extend van der Linde’s impressive championship lead. The Engen Volkswagen Cup field head to Phakisa Freeway in Welkom for the next round of the championship – and back to the traditional circuits that they are used to competing on.

The 2012 Engen Volkswagen Cup series is similar to the other racing Volkswagen Polo Cup single-series championships run in China, Europe and India. Just as in those official Volkswagen-moderated series, the South African one-make format highlights new driving talent. In the Engen series, as many as 35 drivers regularly take to the track in technically-identical, 2.0-litre 234bhp Volkswagen Polo Vivo racers.

RACE RESULTS
Race 1
1 Kelvin van der Linde (31: Ferodo Racing)
2 Kyle Barnes (4: Gold Liberations/Conti Partner)
3 Mathew Hodges (18: ITR Africa)

Race 2
1 Kyle Barnes (4: Gold Liberations/Conti Partner)
2 Kelvin van der Linde (31: Ferodo Racing)
3 Devin Robertson (1: Big Boss Auto/Sparco)

Overall standings
1 Kelvin van der Linde (31: Ferodo Racing)
2 Kyle Barnes (4: Gold Liberations/Conti Partner)
3 Devin Robertson (1: Big Boss Auto/Sparco)

The Polo is still popular in the UK, according to the latest sales figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) for May 2012. Holding firm as the seventh best-selling car in the UK, Volkswagen’s evergreen small car also retained its sixth place in the year-to-date sales chart. In a change of fortunes, the Vauxhall Corsa finally usurped the Ford Fiesta as not only the top-selling supermini, but also the best-selling new car on the UK market. UK new passenger car registrations rose 7.9 per cent in May to 162,288 units, the largest percentage rise for 23 months.

‘May’s 7.9 per cent increase in new car registrations is good news for the motor industry and the UK economy, particularly the steady growth in demand from private buyers,’ said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive. ‘There is no doubt that vehicle manufacturers and their dealer networks are working hard to deliver value for money to motorists and the consistent climb in new car registrations during the first five months of the year suggests that confidence is returning.’ The top 10 UK best-selling cars in May 2012 and for the year overall (sales figure and position in brackets) are as follows:

1 Vauxhall Corsa: 8143 (38,347, 2nd)
2 Ford Fiesta: 8337(50,507, 1st)
3 Ford Focus: 6983 (36,916, 3rd)
4 Volkswagen Golf: 5867 (28,261, 4th)
5 Vauxhall Astra: 5433 (25,011, 5th)
6 BMW 3 Series: 3520 (17,205, 8th)
7 Volkswagen Polo: 3228 (18,971, 6th)
8 Nissan Qashqai: 3179 (18,660, 7th)
9 Vauxhall Insignia: 2949 (15,031, 9th)
10 Fiat 500: 2823

(The 2012 year-to-date top 10 best-selling car absent from May’s sales figures is the Mercedes C-Class selling 14,434 units in tenth place.)

At last! Volkswagen UK has today made hands-free Bluetooth connection kits standard on selected Polo models, which should make a lot of prospective Polo owners very happy. It’s something which has been lacking from the standard specification for quite some time, if comments on internet forums are anything to go by. Standard on models above the basic ‘S’ specification, the Touch Phone Kit was previously a £245 option, and consists of a 2.8-inch colour touchscreen which displays a phone book, call lists, reception status and more, depending on which make and model of mobile device is connected.

The kit also offers voice control of answering and dialling functions and can ‘read’ text messages aloud as well as any emails which may be received. The Touch Phone Kit is just one of the technological additions which has been added to UK-bound Polos in recent months. All models now come with DAB digital radio as standard, while an MDI multi-device interface connection for iPods and MP3 players has also been fitted to models of Match specification and above. Bluetooth is also now standard on all High Up city cars; all Golf, Golf Estate, Golf Plus, Jetta, Touran, Tiguan and Sharan models above S specification; and all Golf Cabriolet, Scirocco, Eos, Passat, Passat Estate, CC, Touareg and Phaeton cars.

In a repeat of recent months, the Polo Vivo maintained its grip on the South Africa new passenger car market, once again taking the best-seller top spot for May 2012, selling 2789 units. And, once again, the fifth-generation Polo was right behind, with 2343 examples finding new homes. A total of 4909 Polo 6Rs were also exported, further boosting the production tallies. Volkswagen Group South Africa was the leader in the passenger car market overall, too, with total sales of 8260 units and a market share of 23.7% in May. The Polo’s closely-related Audi A1 cousin sold 101 units last month in the South African market, having had its official launch at the same time.

‘Volkswagen Group South Africa maintained its dominance in the passenger car market for the fifth consecutive month in 2012. Polo Vivo was the best-selling brand in the country with 2789 units. At the same time, Polo was the second best-selling Brand in the passenger car market with 2343 units. Both models are still market leaders in the A0 segment, in spite of the new models being introduced in the most competitive segment in South Africa,’ explained Mike Glendinning, Director, Sales and Marketing, Volkswagen Group South Africa. In May 2012, a total of 34,820 new passenger cars were sold in South Africa, an increase of 18% when compared to April 2012 and a growth of 20.8% against the same period in 2011.

The Polo Vivo was launched in March 2010 as an entry-level model for the South African market, replacing the Series 1 Golf-based CitiGolf, and is available as a three or five-door hatchback and four-door booted saloon with 74bhp/84bhp 1.4-litre and 103bhp 1.6-litre petrol engines. Costing from R106,100 for the base-model 1.4 hatchback to R153,200 for the top 1.6 Trendline Sedan, the 2012 Polo Vivo is based on the revised version of the Series 4 Polo (9N3), built from 2005 to 2009. The fifth-generation Polo (6R) is available as both a three and five-door hatchback, in addition to the traditionally-styled four-door Polo Sedan.