PoloDriver

In the third rounds of the 2011 Engen Volkswagen Cup last weekend at the Scribante Raceway near Port Elisabeth, Devin Robertson and Lee Thompson each celebrated a race win. In the aggregate score of both races, victory of the day went to the 18-year-old Robertson in front of Lee Thompson and Kosie Weyers, who clinched second and sixth places respectively in the field of the 25 Volkswagen Polo racers.

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 racers. The next rounds of the 2011 Engen Volkswagen Cup are scheduled for 4 June at the Phakisa circuit in Welkom.

[Source: Volkswagen South Africa // Images: keino@quickpic]

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First Europe, then the UK, Australia and Singapore. Now the next launch pad for the Polo GTI (6R) is South Africa. Building demand and teasing prospective buyers is this Ogilvy Cape Town-produced ‘Coming Soon’ 40-second preview film, which shows scant details about the car itself. With a nod to the ‘light’ campaign which heralded the fifth-generation Polo’s arrival in 2009, this clip directs would-be GTI drivers to the preview website – http://www.datedrive.co.za/ – where they can submit their details to Volkswagen South Africa in order to learn more about the car. Eager South African hot Polo fans can also catch up with the drip-feed information by following an active and dedicated Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/DateDrive. Facebook users can also share the video with their friends.

The mammoth annual classic car event that is Techno Classica Essen, takes place over five days in Essen (no!) in Germany, and 2011’s event from 30 March to 3 April saw, as in previous years, a predictably large Volkswagen Group attendance. As well as official stands from Volkswagen Classic – showing Karmann-based prototypes and vehicles from Osnabrück, including a 1973 Passat, 1974 Scirocco, Series 1 Golf Cabriolet prototype and the premiere of the new Series 6 Golf Cabriolet – Hall 8.1 offered a smattering of VW-brand clubs, and among them, IG Typ 86, and a trio of motorsport Polos. Sebastian Winkler of www.g-lader.info has kindly given us permission to use these photos of the Series 1 Polo track-based wide-arch Polos, and a rally-spec Group H Series 2 Polo G60. More pictures and Sebastian’s HD video of the Techno Classica Essen 2011 event can be found here.

[Images: Sebastian Winkler]

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This almost passed us by. It seems that Volkswagen UK has quietly taken a duster and carried out some spring cleaning to the Polo range. Prices increased slightly on 1 April 2011 (new price list here), and the company replaced the 74bhp variant of the 1.6-litre TDI engine with a 1.2-litre unit of the same power. Related to the super-frugal 1199cc unit in Polo BlueMotion models and used in other Polo ranges worldwide, the new engine pumps out 102g/km, rather than the BlueMotion’s 91g/km. The new engine is available in SE trim only, costing £13,735 in three-door form and £14,355 for five doors. High-specification SEL TDI models continue with the 89bhp 1.6-litre unit as before. Volkswagen UK has also recently extended its £299, limited offer, 3-year/30,000-mile (whichever is soonest) fixed price servicing deal, which now runs until 30 June 2011. For more details, go to www.volkswagen.co.uk/#/new/polo-v. In other Polo-related news, the Polo GTI was launched in Singapore on Monday.

Now there are many ways to catch up with the latest from PoloDriver. In addition to the app-style website on mobile devices and desktop widget, there’s also the busy PoloDriver Twitter feed. Constantly refreshed with headlines from the website, there are also short message updates, retweets of other websites’ Polo-related stories and unique content not found on our main website. Our Facebook page is also now up and running, so check back there from time to time to see how it’s evolving. There’s now no reason to miss a PoloDriver update – catch up with the latest from us whichever way you want!