PoloDriver

Current championship winner Devin Robertson extended his 37-point lead at the fifth round of the 2011 Engen Volkswagen Cup last weekend, celebrating a double victory at the Aldo Scribante Race Circuit in Port Elizabeth. The fifth round of the 2011 series (also known as the Volkswagen Polo Cup South Africa) saw Robertson beat Dewald Brummer and Lee Thompson to the top step of the podium in the first race, while the South African was ahead of second-placed Thompson and third-placed Kosie Weyers.

The 2011 Engen Volkswagen Cup series is similar to the other racing VW Polo Cup single-series championships run in both Europe and India. Just as in those series, the one-make format particularly highlights a wealth of new young driving talent. In the Engen championship, as many as thirty drivers regularly take to the track in technically-identical, 2.0-litre, 234bhp Volkswagen Polo Vivo racing cars. The next two rounds of the 2011 Engen Volkswagen Cup are scheduled for 3 September at the BMSC circuit, East London.

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After a two-month absence, the Polo is back in the UK’s top 10 best-selling cars chart. Sitting at eighth place during July 2011, the latest batch of sales figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ (SMMT) record that 3684 Polos were sold, bringing the year-to-date tally to 26,581 units. The unsalable Ford Fiesta was once again the top seller in both the July figures (6695 units) and the year-to-date charts (58,338 units). There was another success story for Volkswagen UK in the top 10 figures for last month, as the evergreen Golf appeared at number four, selling 4272 examples.

‘New car registration figures fell marginally by 3.5% to 131,634 units in July, reflecting the impact of slower economic growth and subdued consumer confidence,’ said Paul Everitt, SMMT Chief Executive. ‘Robust demand in the fleet sector helped to bolster weaker private demand. While the coming months of the year remain challenging, performance in the second half of 2011 is expected to keep the new car market on course to reach sales of around 1.93 million units.’ The Polo’s supermini class segment accounted for an improved 34.2% share of the July market in 2011. The UK’s top 10 best-selling cars in July 2011 and the year-to-date (sales figure and position in brackets) are as follows:

1 Ford Fiesta: 6695 (58,388, 1st)
2 Ford Focus: 6235 (50,060, 2nd)
3 Vauxhall Corsa: 5122 (43,719, 3rd)
4 Volkswagen Golf: 4272 (37,390, 4th)
5 Vauxhall Astra: 4084 (36,697, 5th)
6 Vauxhall Insignia: 4037 (29,987, 6th)
7 BMW 3 Series: 3693 (25,559, 8th)
8 Volkswagen Polo: 3684 (26,581, 7th)
9 Nissan Qashqai: 3391 (23,383, 9th)
10 Volkswagen Passat: 2514

(The 2011 year-to-date best-seller absent from July’s sales figures is the Mini, selling 20,337 units in 10th place.)

On 5 August, Volkswagen launched the latest take on its ‘Think Blue’ campaign, highlighting the benefits of sustainable mobility. Featuring media for print, online and TV, the latest initiatives follow the company’s ‘Think Blue’ website launch back in May. As well as promoting VW’s latest efficient vehicles and ranges, the site also gives tips on saving fuel, and information on the various global ‘Think Blue’ projects. The Australian 1-litre Challenge for example sets out to see which drivers can extract the most miles from a Polo TDI.

‘We have set ourselves the ambitious target of becoming the greenest automaker. Our products and the “Think Blue” campaign demonstrate we have what it takes to achieve that,’ Luca de Meo, Director of Marketing, Volkswagen Group and the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, explained. With ‘Think Blue’, Volkswagen is addressing how individual mobility and sustainable action can be harmonised, including eco-friendly products as well as resource-efficient production methods. The TV commercial (above) creates a symphony on sustainability using the unusual presentation technique of ‘music painting’. The 60-second spot tells the story of fuel efficiency at Volkswagen, from ‘Think Small’ to ‘Think Blue.’

Volkswagen states that the name ‘Think Blue’ picks up the thread of the legendary ‘Think Small’ advertising slogan of the famous 1960s campaign which highlighted the way the Volkswagen Beetle democratised mobility, most notably in the US. Going forward, Volkswagen intends to maintain its pioneering role of making efficient and sustainable mobility accessible to everyone. That includes environmental developments such as the fuel-saving BlueMotion Technologies and electro-mobility as well as new mobility concepts. Above all, though, the German company says that the ‘Think Blue’ campaign is primarily about joining up with customers and everyone else interested in a change of mindset towards sustainable mobility.

[Source: Volkswagen]

Volkswagen Motorsport’s first foray into WRC for a fair few years didn’t quite make the impact the team had planned. Entering a pair of Škoda Fabia S2000s on the Neste Oil Rally Finland on 27-30 July, Volkswagen Motorsport is using the Czech cars as technological, mechanical, and driver testbeds, but, on the Finnish round of the 2011 World Rally Championship both cars failed to finish. Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Norway) suffered a damaged radiator during stage 17 while Joonas Lindroos/Pasi Kilpeläinen (Finland) retired from the event after rolling on the eighth special stage. Volkswagen Motorsport announced in May 2011 that it is contesting the 2013 World Rally Championship with the new four-wheel drive, 300bhp Polo R WRC rally car. The full Volkswagen Motorsport Neste Rally Finland press release and gallery is posted over in our Polo R WRC pages.

The Polo BlueMotion 1.2 TDI won its class at the 2011 Total Economy Run in South Africa last weekend. Competing in the diesel engines up to 1400cc class, driver Natie Ferreira and his co-driver Christo Ferreira achieved a winning fuel consumption figure of 4.44 litres/100km. The duo were also placed second overall in the diesel category. The official quoted imperial fuel consumption figure for the Polo BlueMotion is 80.7mpg. The 35th running of the 2011 Total Economy Run took place in and around the Thaba ‘Nchu, Free State. A Volkswagen won the event overall, too – the winning team of Eddie Bielfeld and Brian Page squeezing 4.39 litres/km from their 1.6 TDI-powered Golf BlueMotion.

The Polo BlueMotion was launched in South Africa in December 2010, and features a state of the art 1.2-litre, 74bhp/55kW TDI engine with 133lb ft/180Nm of torque at 4200rpm, a top speed of 107mph (173km/h) and emissions of 91g/km. It has many aerodynamic body styling modifications which differ from the standard fifth-generation Polo hatchback and help cut fuel consumption including a larger rear spoiler, side skirts, blanked-off front grille, front and rear skirts, 5.5J x 15 ‘Greenland’ alloy wheels with low-rolling resistance tyres and special ‘BlueMotion’ badging. The Polo BlueMotion is available in South Africa from R178,100 and was first launched in Europe in 2007, in fourth-generation Polo guise.

In other news, Volkswagen’s BlueMotion range has won the inaugural Green Award from UK magazine Auto Express. A range of innovations that help to cut the cost of motoring by making every drop of fuel take you further, Auto Express stated that, ‘Simplicity is the key to the BlueMotion line-up, as clever technology such as stop-start and brake regeneration combines with measures like low-rolling-resistance tyres and optimised aerodynamics to bring fuel-sipping economy and low emissions to the mass market. The best thing about BlueMotion is how few compromises it demands. Sealing the deal is the fact it delivers genuine gains for business users and private buyers, as well as the environment.’