The Volkswagen Polo has long been a force within the World Rally Championship (WRC). Since 2011, the supermini has recorded more than 40 wins, 38 podiums, and 12 titles. So, not looking to derail its overall success, VW today has teased a new version of the VW Polo for competition in WRC.
Dubbed the Polo GTI R5, the new hatchback will make its rally debut in the second half of 2018. A new 270-horsepower (201-kilowatt) turbocharged four-cylinder engine will be found under the hood, and come paired paired to a five-speed sequential transmission. VW has yet to confirm that a factory team will compete in 2018, but the new Polo GTI R5 will be made available to customer teams for the first time.
The new Polo WRC project has been in development since the beginning of 2017. VW Motorsport Technical Director Francois-Xavier Demaison, and Senior Project Engineer Gerard-Jan de Jongh are in part to thank for the project, and are the same men responsible for the success of the previous Polo rally car.
"With the Polo GTI R5 we are hoping to transfer our expertise from four WRC titles to customer racing successfully, and offer a first-class racing machine for countless rally championships from national series to the WRC" said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets. "Before the first race outing next year, we will subject the Polo GTI R5 to rigorous testing to make sure it is prepared for the extremely varied track conditions around the world."
The Polo R5 rally car will make its debut alongside the standard Polo towards the end of 2017. The production Polo won't come equipped with the same 270-hp (201-kW) engine, sadly, but rumor has it that the German marque could be working on a Golf R rivaling version that could produce upwards of 300 hp (223 kW).
