PoloDriver

Of all the publicity materials created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Volkswagen Polo, this one has to be one of our favourites so far. The Miniatur Wunderland model railway tourist attraction in Hamburg currently has a special Polo train running on its tracks.

Since 2000, Miniatur Wunderland in the ‘Speicherstadt’ (former warehouse district) of Hamburg has been one of the most popular attractions in Germany. Its many themed worlds are grouped around a very special model railway, and to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of the Polo, there is an equally special car transport train loaded with miniature versions of the small Volkswagen.

A (ahem) small part of Volkswagen’s anniversary campaign to mark the half-century birthday of the Polo, more than 70 1:87-scale Polos travel around the miniature area of the ‘City of Hamburg’ on a car transporter train – past sights such as the Elbphilharmonie, Elbe bridges and the harbour – on 12 carriages.

Most of the dinky Polos – Wiking 1:87s we think – seem to be the fifth-generation 6R cars, but there is the odd first-generation Polo dotted among them. The attention to detail is truly superb. Each car wears VW’s special ‘50 Years of Polo’ branding, and even the stations are decorated with billboards with the same logo!

Volkswagen doesn’t state exactly how long the Polo train will be travelling around Minatur Wunderland, but we imagine it would be for the rest of the anniversary year. And with new landscapes including Italy, Provence, and Monaco – complete with a Formula One Grand Prix layout! – a visit to the small-scale attraction is enticing enough in these quarters as it is…

One of the past marketing lines for the Polo was ‘How can a small car be so big’, and that resonates more than ever during 2025, as we celebrate the Polo’s big milestone birthday. It’s also pulled sharply – and fantastically – into focus in the promotional campaign at Minatur Wunderland. Bravo!

If we’re honest, this is one we weren’t expecting. As part of Volkswagen’s push – and it is a push, going on the sizable amount of social media content generated so far – to celebrate 50 years of the Polo, a special livery has been unveiled at the Bicester Scramble event in the UK. A birthday suit – no, not that kind – if you like.

Chosen by social media poll on Instagram, fans could pick from four different blue, green, red, and yellow liveries referencing… yep, you’re already there aren’t you, the Polo Harlequin from 1996. But the car the winning livery would be adorning wasn’t a standard Polo. A show car replica of the 2018 Polo R WRX World Rallycross car driven to victory by Johan Kristoffersson was the chosen recipient, itself appearing nearly identical to the Polo R WRCs that enjoyed rally success in the World Rally Championship from 2013-2016. (In actual fact, some of the Polo WRXs were repurposed Polo R WRCs, repurposed after their competition careers had ended.)

Pop art-inspired
What’s particularly notable about the Harlequin WRX reveal was that it was at a UK event. We were there to see the car in the metal, and it looked stunning, placed at the top of the main drive at the Bicester Motion campus, ensuring a full and steady flow of car fans to pass by it all day. Parked on a low-rise pedestal, the car was, as you might expect, fantastically eye-catching, its pop art-inspired livery using the original Harlequin colours of Chagallblau (Chagall Blue, Pantone code LD5D), Flashrot (Flash Red, LP3G), Ginstergelb (Ginster Yellow, LR132) and Pistazie (Pistachio, LD6D).

In addition to the liveried car, Volkswagen UK displayed a 1980 first-generation Polo GLS in Inari Silver and a second-generation Cherry Red 1990 Polo CL – both mainstays of its heritage press fleet – to make it a real family affair. Sixth-generation Black Edition and GTI models reminded showgoers of the current Polo family, and helped highlight the Polo’s continued evolution and celebrate its 20 million – and counting – sales worldwide.

‘Special and enduring model’
Mike Orford, head of PR and communications at Volkswagen UK, said, ‘The Polo is a model that resonates with so many people for different reasons. They might have been fans of the Polo rally cars as they dominated world championships, their parents might have owned a Mk 1 or Mk 2 Polo, or it might have been the car in which they learned to drive. Whatever the reason is, the Polo is a special and enduring model for Volkswagen and that’s why it is great when we get to celebrate these milestone moments in such a colourful way.

‘We’re really looking forward to seeing this one-off livery in action later in the year as the birthday celebrations really ramp up,’ Orford continued. Yes, the next time the livery will be seen isn’t likely to be stationary, on a pedestal; other championship-winning Polo rally cars are set to wear it for ‘thrilling’ birthday-related activities later this year. Catch them if you can!

The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu will celebrate 50 years of the Volkswagen Polo at its popular Simply VW event on 25 May 2025, with a special anniversary display, and there is still time to make your Polo part of the festivities.

All Polo owners are invited to take part in the special anniversary display on the arena, whether cars are 50-year-old original models, or one of the next five generations – all are welcome.

To take part, you’ll need to buy your participant tickets and email events@beaulieu.co.uk with the following information to book your space in the line-up:

• Vehicle make: VW
• Vehicle model: Polo – please indicate which generation
• Name
• Contact details – telephone number and email address
• Any special vehicle details or requirements.

Participant ticket prices are only valid if arriving in a Volkswagen and displaying a vehicle within the event. They are not valid for those arriving on foot and must be for persons arriving in the display vehicle, which requires one participant ticket per person. Enough tickets must be bought to cover all the occupants of that vehicle.

Please note that participant tickets are not valid for additional persons not arriving in a relevant vehicle. Up to 9 May, advance ticket prices are £16.80 for adults, and £8.50 for children. After this date, entry costs £18.50 and £9.00 respectively.

Notable event
The Simply VW event is held on 25 May 2025, from 10am-5pm, and entry includes admission to all the Beaulieu attractions, which includes The National Motor Museum. With around 600 VWs of all types in attendance at previous shows, it promises to be a notable event in the VW show calendar.

In addition to seeing the cars on display, participants have the opportunity to be chosen as the winner of the People’s Choice Awards, selected by public vote. Prizes are awarded to the winner and two runners-up. Club displays are also welcome, and if you would like to reserve an area for your club to park together within the event, email events@beaulieu.co.uk. At least 10 cars are needed to qualify.

Find out all the details about the Polo 50th anniversary display and the Simply VW event itself at beaulieu.co.uk/events/simply-vw. We will be there, and it would be great to see as many Polos in attendance as possible, to celebrate the car’s milestone birthday in style!

The Simply single-marque shows form just part of Beaulieu’s busy events programme. Alongside the Simply VW show, there are similar events for owners of Aston Martins, Audis, BMWs, Fords, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benzes, Porsches, Smarts, as well as French, Italian and Japanese cars.

There are also the famous autojumble events, this year held on 17-18 May and 6-7 September, where hundreds of stalls offer the chance to pick-up all sorts of motoring bargains, curiosities, and memorabilia. Head to beaulieu.co.uk/events to see Beaulieu’s comprehensive 2025 events programme.

All images: Our Tim YouTube channel.

If you’re here, you’re probably aware the Volkswagen Polo celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025, and today marks another important date in its history. The first-generation Polo was presented to the international media from 16-22 March 1975, following the beginning of production not quite two weeks earlier.

The international press presentation and driving event was staged in Hanover, 55 miles west from Volkwagen’s Wolfsburg headquarters. We like the idea of tens of brightly-coloured Polos whizzing around the streets of the Lower Saxony capital city – the scene would be similar to this footage of the August 1974 Audi 50 press launch in Sardinia – and venturing out onto the vast and empty autobahns to cruise flat out at a top speed of 82mph…

Volkswagen’s smallest model in its new wave of water-cooled cars was also on show at the 48th Salon de L’Auto Geneve – the Geneva motor show – having been unveiled there on 13 March 1975. On display until the show’s end on 23 March, a gleaming Marino Yellow Polo L took centre stage on an underlit revolving platform, with a few others scattered about around it. This fantastic video shows some rare footage of the event, and doesn’t our star of the show look fabulous?

In this 50th anniversary year, we’ll have more posts on notable dates and models, but for now, head to our heritage pages to learn more about the history of the Polo, and in particular, how the first-generation Polo arrived as a cut-price version of the Audi 50, outliving its more expensive relative by four years. Happy international media presentation birthday, Polo!

The Volkswagen Polo celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025, and there is a reason to celebrate today. On 5 March 1975, production of the Polo began at VW’s Wolfsburg plant. The almost identical Audi 50 was already rolling off Wolfsburg’s production lines, having been launched in August 1974.

Volkswagen’s headquarters site at Wolfsburg would be the sole production home of the Polo until 1984, when the small VW began to be assembled in SEAT’s plant at Pamplona in Spain. This became the site most synonymous with Polo production, the last model coming off the lines in July 2024 after a 40-year run.

The picture above is said to be one of the first, if not the first, image of the new small VW of the Seventies, and the car that completed Volkswagen’s then-new water-cooled line-up. The Polo wouldn’t be seen in public until its launch at the 1975 Geneva motor show around two weeks after the start of production, but the car had been mooted to arrive for several months before. In a synchronistic twist, Volkswagen will unveil the concept version of its ID 1 electric car later today, which, like the first-generation Polo, will be the smallest car in the Volkswagen family.

In this 50th anniversary year, we’ll have more posts on notable dates and models, but for now, head to our heritage pages to learn more about the history of the Polo, and in particular, how the first-generation Polo arrived as a cut-price version of the Audi 50, outliving its more expensive relative by four years. Happy production birthday, Polo!