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Volkswagen South Africa has once again struck on the popularity of its Polo Vivo model by introducing a new special edition, the Storm. Based on the 1.4-litre 84bhp/63kW Trendline, the Storm costs R187 300 (including VAT and emission tax) and includes equipment and special styling to differentiate it from the numerous standard versions of Volkswagen South Africa’s budget Polo offering.
Prominent change
Outside, black metallic 15-inch ‘Tosa’ alloy wheels jostle for attention with the ‘Storm’ body decals, gloss black mirror caps, front fog lights with chrome surrounds and chrome-tipped exhaust pipes. Inside, a two-tone grey and ‘ceramique’ dashboard is the most prominent change, while a leather trimmed steering wheel, gear lever gaiter and handbrake lever are also standard.
2016 Volkswagen Polo Vivo Storm (South Africa)
2016 Volkswagen Polo Vivo Storm (South Africa)
Special features
Other special features include an anthracite-coloured roof lining, and exclusive three-tone seat upholstery. As standard, the Polo Vivo Storm is fitted with a CD radio system with Bluetooth and SD card connectivity, and six speakers. The Storm joins the GTS as one of the most distinctive Vivo models available.
The Storm follows an announcement in September that Volkswagen South Africa is to also manufacture the Polo Vivo in Kenya, expanding production to cope with the demand the popular car has. Continually a best-seller since its introduction in 2010 when it replaced the CitiGolf, the Polo Vivo is based on the facelifted Series 4 Polo which was sold in Europe from 2005-2009.
After a disappointing result at the World RX of Spain, Volkswagen RX Sweden travelled to the inaugural World RX of Latvia with one clear objective: to achieve a strong result. Round 10 of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship took place at the 1.29km-long Bikernieki National Sports Base on 30 September to 2 October, and the event saw Volkswagen RX Sweden’s Johan Kristoffersson finish fifth overall. The result doesn’t tell the whole story, though: the Swedish star is now second in the series’ Drivers’ Championship points.
Fastest time
Kristoffersson set the fastest time in the second qualifying heat on day one and also claimed the top spot in the third round, despite changeable weather conditions and torrential rain. With a time almost six seconds faster than any rival, the 600bhp Polo RX proved its capability and rewarded the Swedish driver with a first place at the end of the Intermediate Classification sessions. The rallycross and circuit star also started on pole position for the first semi-final, before crossing the line fifth in the final race.
The points boost saw Kristoffersson leap-frog over ex-WRC champion and reigning World RX leader Petter Holberg to take second place in the drivers’ standings, 27 points shy of leader Mattias Ekström. Kristoffersson was pleased with the improvement in his performance: ‘I was able do one very quick run in the dry and one in the wet this weekend, so that was good, and to be top after the qualifying races and move to P2 in the championship is great.
2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Latvia: Kristoffersson
2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Latvia: Kristoffersson
2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Latvia: Kristoffersson
2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Latvia: Kristoffersson
2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Latvia: Kristoffersson
‘Lot of progress’
‘I have to thank the whole team because now we are scoring a lot of points at every race. We just have to keep pushing, to continue to try and fight for this championship. We missed a bit of pace in the semi-final and final, so it has not been an easy day for sure. We have made a lot of progress in the last few events and I’m looking forward to Germany in two weeks,’ he continued. A total of sixty points are available over the next and final two rounds of the season.
Kristofersson’s team-mate Anton Marklund endured a more challenging event in Riga. However, the former FIA European Rallycross Touring Car Champion also improved on his points tally in the championship standings at the Latvian event. A spin in the torrentially wet conditions of the third qualifying session cost Marklund time, without which he would have made the semi-finals. As it was he finished 15th in Latvia.
‘Very tough’
The young Swede conceded his result was not what he expected: ‘This weekend has been very tough for me. I got a brand new chassis for this round and the mechanics have done an amazing job. It looks like a show car, it’s stunning and I was really looking forward to racing it here. We set some good lap times but I didn’t have the feeling on the first day.
‘I had really good pace in the wet on the morning of dat two, but hit some water and had a 360-degree spin, which cost me a lot of time. If you take away the time I lost, I would have been P4 in Q3 and that would have got me into the semi-finals. It’s disappointing, but I’m testing here in Latvia all day on Monday to find improvements in myself and the car, so I can show what I can do in Germany,’ he added.
2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Latvia: Marklund
2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Latvia: Kristoffersson
2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Latvia: Kristoffersson
2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Latvia: Marklund and Kristoffersson
2016 Volkswagen Polo RX, World RX of Latvia: Marklund
‘Huge effort’
Michael Schneider, Volkswagen RX Sweden Team Principal is pleased with the progress made in both wet and dry conditions, and says the team will do all it can to help Kristoffersson fight for the 2016 World RX Drivers’ Championship title. ‘Johan had a very good weekend. To be top qualifier takes a huge effort from the team and driver, and it proves again that we have the pace to run at the front,’ said Schneider. ‘We will work hard to do everything we can to finish in the best possible place after the last round in Argentina. Nothing is over until after the final round.’
Volkswagen RX Sweden remains third in the World Rallycross Teams’ Championship points. The next round the series will take place in two weeks’ time at the Estering in Germany on 15-16 October, where US TV star and rallycross driver Tanner Foust will join the Swedish outfit in a third Volkswagen Polo RX Supercar.
2016 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP, DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1 Mattias Ekström, Audi S1: 228
2 Johan Kristoffersson, Volkswagen Polo: 201
2 Petter Solberg, Citroën DS3: 194
4 Andreas Bakkerud, Ford Focus RS: 192
5 Sébastien Loeb, Peugeot 208: 180
2016 FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP, TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1 EKS: 333
2 Team Peugeot Hansen: 345
3 Volkswagen RX Sweden: 265
4 Hoonigan Racing Division: 247
5 World RX Team Austria: 187
The Polo R-Line is the latest in a string of models to tempt the sports-focused driver, but with no direct link to the Polo R WRC rally car and a small displacement engine, does it deserve its performance-orientated badge?
The Volkswagen Polo R WRC is the most successful rally car in the history of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) when it comes to win ratios (40 wins from 49 events), but there has never been a mainstream production model to capitalise on its success. Yes, the Polo R WRC Street of 2013 celebrated its motorsport relative’s first year of success, but a very limited continental market-only production run of just 2500 left-hand drive examples meant it was never going to be widely seen.
And while Audi produces a four-wheel drive version of its Polo-based small car, the S1 slots nearly into the Ingolstadt company’s Quattro range of cars. Four-wheel drive Polo prototypes have been built – and driven – but they remain just that: prototypes. A high-specification, high-power Polo R is seen as expensive to produce and therefore expensive to sell, and like the the R WRC Street before it, would be produced in such small numbers to make it unfeasible.
Enthusiasts’ machine
With road-going versions of current World Rally cars no longer needed to be produced to satisfy homologation requirements, a Polo R will most likely never materialise. That’s a shame, as with no correlation between its rally (and rallycross) counterparts, the Polo road car will never be seen as enthusiasts’ machine.
The 189bhp GTI currently sits at the top of the Polo tree and even with that there’s the debate about whether it is reined in to not clash with arguably one of Volkswagen’s crown jewels, the Golf GTI, which itself celebrates four decades of success in 2016.
So where does that leave the Polo driver who admires the motorsport style of the WRC car but also, like many traditional buyers, has one eye on economy and comfort? Enter the Polo R-Line. With a sporty external appearance, a high specification and a choice of economical petrol and diesel engines, the R-Line might not be the mythical full fat R, but is arguably the nearest buyers of the current car will get.
Prices start at £16,455 for the 89bhp 1.2-litre TSI three-door, and rise to £19,190 for the five-door 108bhp 1.0 TSI DSG. Our test car, a five-door six-speed manual fitted with the smaller capacity turbocharged petrol engine weighed in at £17,815, although a handful of extras (more of which later) nudged that price to a near-GTI £19,440.
The Polo is a continued UK success, even as the current fifth-generation car edges ever closer to the end of its lifecyle. The latest batch of registration figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that the the Polo remains the sixth most popular car in the UK, following a rise to the spot just outside the top five in August. A total of 9765 versions of the small Volkswagen were registered in September. In the year-to-date chart, the Polo remains in seventh place.
In a repeat of what has happened throughout 2016, the Ford Fiesta tops both charts: 19,769 examples of the small Ford were registered during September, while 96,139 Fiesta registrations have been recorded during 2016 so far. As a whole, 469,696 new cars were registered in plate-change September, which the SMMT quotes as a steady rise of 1.6 per cent and the highest September on record.
The total number of cars registered in the UK so far during 2016 so far has grown to 2,150,495 units – up 2.6 per cent compared with the same period last year. It is only the second time that the two million mark has been passed in September since 2004. The UK’s top 10 most popular passenger cars during September 2016 and the year so far (sales figure and position in brackets) are as follows:
Three-time world rally champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia are one step nearer to claiming a fourth consecutive drivers’ title in the World Rally Championship (WRC) after claiming a debut victory at Rally France, held on the island of Corsica from 29 September to 2 October.
Fortieth Polo R WRC win
The French duo awarded the 318bhp all-wheel drive Polo R WRC its 40th victory on the asphalt roads through the mountains and the 390.92kms of stages on the event known as the ‘Rally of 10,000 Corners’ (there are in fact just 659 ‘real turns’). They themselves scored the 36th win of their career and dominated the Corsican stages from the word go.
The reigning champions won half of the ten special stages, and set all the best times of the first day – a first since Volkswagen Motorsport entered the WRC in 2013. Ogier and Ingrassia were back on home turf and back on an asphalt surface, and they took full advantage. The smooth surface needed no ‘sweeping’ unlike the gravel tracks of the mid-season events where the pair have posted slower stage times, due to their first place starting positions.
Early dominance
Ogier and Ingrassia’s early dominance showed world champion skills and through a blend of a powerful performance, the right tyre choices for the mixed dry and damp stage conditions, and a cool determination, the Frenchmen set the pace and kept it there, right until the end of the event. Team-mates Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders Jæger were chasing hard, along with Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul in their i20 WRC.
Coincidentally, the French pair’s leading chasers were also the crews which could deny them a fourth consecutive WRC title. Ogier and Ingrassia’s win meant that their lead in the Drivers’ Championship is now 68 points: a third place and a point on the Power Stage at Rally Spain would see them crowned champions for the fourth time.
That’s regardless of other results, with only Mikkelsen/Jæger and Neuville/Gilsoul able to stop the current champions taking another trophy: the other Volkswagen Motorsport crew of Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila finished fourth in France and are sadly now out of title contention.
2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally France: Ogier/Ingrassia
2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally France: Ogier/Ingrassia
2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally France: Ogier/Ingrassia
2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally France: Ogier/Ingrassia
2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC, Rally France: Ogier/Ingrassia
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