PoloDriver

Volkswagen Polo R Cup India 2012 championship leader Ameya Walavalkar had a good start to the round three race weekend on 25-26 August. Taking the race one victory, he finished ahead of Sailesh Bolisetti and Sandeep Kumar at the MMRT in Chennai. Walavalkar started on pole and led into the first corner, followed by Kumar and Avdumber Hede. A two-driver collision meant a restart after a red flag, and once again Walavalkar was out in front. Pulling ahead to extend his lead, he crossed the finish line to win his second race of the season. Ex-Polo R-Cup India champion Bolisetti said: ‘I was 1.394 seconds behind in qualifying and knew I had to go faster in the race to challenge for the lead. I managed to set similar times to Walavalkar but could not come close enough. It took me some time to get used the new TSI Race Polo but the more I drove it the more comfortable I was.’

Race two was equally as action-packed. Race leader Ajay Kini received a 20-second time penalty after colliding with Donovan Vaz on the last lap, therefore handing the win to Mihir Dharkar, with Walavalkar and Bolisetti also rising up the final results, placing second and third respectively. Dharkar said: ‘I am happy with my performance today. My plan was to stay behind Ajay and attack at the end of the race. Every time I tried to overtake Ajay, I felt Ameya try to overtake me but there was clean racing between all of us. It is unfortunate but I am happy to inherit the win from Ajay.” Round four of the Volkswagen Polo R Cup India 2012 is at the MMRT, Chennai, on 15-16 September.

Overall standings
1 Ameya Walavalkar: 182 points
2 Mihir Dharkar: 168 points
3 A Sandeep Kumar: 160 points

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The BP Volkswagen rally team saw a tough and demanding two days of competition on the Rally South Africa event in Kwa-Zulu Natal on 17-18 August. By the end of the eight fast stages, the multi-car crew was fighting for for the finish in Durban. Top-ranked Volkswagen Polo S2000 was the car of Enzo Kuun and Guy Hodgson, who placed fourth overall, producing some of their most spectacular 2012 season moments.

After the first day, the pair was third in the leadership table, ahead of teammates Hans Weijs Jnr and Björn Degandt. Bad luck befell Weijs and Degandt, though, with a technical problem at the start of day two preventing them from continuing the event. This left the door open for Kuun and Hodgson, who raced to the finish line with unfaltering commitment and a fourth place. ‘It was a strong weekend in the car, we worked hard,’ said Kuun. ‘The BP Volkswagen Polo S2000 is capable and we did reasonably well. We just need to add more speed to the performance now.’

Fellow Polo S2000 drivers Hergen Fekken and Pierre Arries suffered a mechanical problem on the first day, and while this allowed them to compete, it incurred them additional time. Rallying hard to rectify the deficit saw them claim victory on stage eight, a full 1.2 seconds ahead of their nearest rivals.

The Polo Vivo pairing of Gugu Zulu and Carl Peskin has been campaigning very hard in the S2000 Challenge class during 2012, and the Rally South Africa was no exception. Crossing the line after the ninth stage, the duo discovered they had posted many of the fastest stage times for their category and were 15th overall and second in their class. Two places behind Zulu and Peskin on the overall finishing list was Megan Verlaque and Hilton Auffray in their Polo Vivo S1600. Verlaque and Auffray rallied hard on day two to make up for their slower times from day one and the pair finished sixth overall in their class.

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Volkswagen Switzerland has announced the Polo GTI Carbon Edition, a very limited edition model, which will only be available on the Swiss market. Essentially a Polo GTI with some added visual punch, only 100 examples will be sold.

The most striking external additions are the distinctive 17-inch, 10-spoke ‘Serron’ polished alloy wheels with black inserts, the ‘GTI Carbon Edition’ honeycomb door decals, and yes, you’ve guessed it, lots of carbon fibre-look trim. The door mirrors are covered in it, as are the B-pillars, which also bear the car’s number in the production run.

The interior features carbon-look trim from the official Volkswagen Accessories catalogue on the radio and air-conditioning surrounds, while standard Polo GTI equipment such as four electric windows and a media-in multimedia socket with USB adapter cable stays.

Four colours – Candy White, Flash Red, Deep Black Pearl Effect and Oryx White Pearl Effect – make up the Polo GTI Carbon Edition’s palette, and while it may be no more than a visually-decorated special, it’s bound to go down well with Swiss Polo fans. The price? €26,430. Deliveries and orders start in October.

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Volkswagen South Africa has today announced price realignments for its wide and varied range of cars. Of course, we’re only concerned with the new costs for the Polo and Polo Vivo models, and the modest rises are detailed below. The Polo Vivo was launched in March 2010 as an entry-level model for the South African market, replacing the Series 1 Golf-based CitiGolf, and is available as a three or five-door hatchback and four-door booted saloon with 74bhp/84bhp 1.4-litre and 103bhp 1.6-litre petrol engines. The Polo Vivo is based on the revised version of the Series 4 Polo (9N3), built from 2005 to 2009. The fifth-generation Polo (6R) has been available as both a three and five-door hatchback since 2009, in addition to the traditionally styled four-door Polo Sedan. The rugged CrossPolo arrived in 2010.

2013 VOLKSWAGEN POLO VIVO PRICES
Hatchback (model: kW rating/CO2, g/km/retail price)
1.4 three-door: 55/147/107,200
1.4 five-door: 55/147/119,500
1.4 five-door Zest: 55/147/123,500
1.4 five-door BlueLine: 55/128/125,100
1.4 five-door Trendline: 63/147/131,300
1.4 five-door Trendline auto: 63/156/145,200
1.6 five-door: 77/157/140,600
1.6 five-door Trendline: 77/157/148,800
1.6 three-door GT: 77/157/153,900

Sedan (model: kW rating/CO2, g/km/retail price)
1.4 four-door: 55/147/125,400
1.4 four-door Trendline: 63/147/137,200
1.4 four-door Trendline auto: 63/156/151,100
1.6 four-door: 77/157/146,500
1.6 four-door Trendline: 77/157/154,700

2013 VOLKSWAGEN POLO PRICES
Hatchback (model: kW rating/CO2, g/km/retail price)
1.4 five-door Trendline: 63/144/155,400
1.4 five-door Comfortline: 63/144/178,700
1.6 five-door Trendline: 77/153/174,400
1.6 five-door Comfortline: 77/153/197,600
1.6 five-door Comfortline auto: 77/157/211,600
1.6 five-door Comfortline TDI: 77/120/221,700
1.2 five-door BlueMotion TDI: 55/89/185,300
1.4 five-door GTI DSG: 132/139/272,200

Sedan (model: kW rating/CO2, g/km/retail price)
1.4 four-door Trendline: 63/139/164,200
1.4 four-door Comfortline: 63/139/178,800
1.6 four-door Trendline: 77/143/184,000
1.6 four-door Comfortline: 77/153/197,000
1.6 four-door Comfortline auto: 77/154/211,000
1.6 four-door Comfortline TDI: 77/120/220,200

CrossPolo Hatchback (model: kW rating/CO2, g/km/retail price)
1.6 five-door: 77/154/212,200
1.6 five-door TDI: 77/120/236,300

Visit www.volkswagen.co.za for the latest information and updates on the award-winning Polo Vivo, Polo and CrossPolo ranges.

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A South African-built 2004 Volkswagen Polo Classic (saloon) has reached the one million kilometer (621,000 miles) mark – after 8 years of fault and accident-free motoring. Sixty-seven year old veteran salesman Gerrie Esterhuizen owns the car and awaited the milestone reading with anticipation. ‘We always wondered what would happen when the speedometer hit the million-kilometre mark,’ he said at a VIP visit with his wife Magriet to the Volkswagen factory in Uitenhage, where his car was made.

Volkswagen Group South Africa Managing Director, David Powels, presented the Esterhuizens with a new instrument cluster (above) and their vehicle was given a special overnight paint, dent removal, and general brush-up package under the eye of Volkswagen South Africa’s Production Director Tom du Plessis.

‘After 999999.9 kilometres, the speedometer just shows six dashes, although the trip meter carries on working,’ Magriet commented. She has been Gerrie’s constant companion as he travels as a salesman from their home is Soutpan, near Bloemfontein, over the roads of the Free State and parts of the Northern Cape, North West and Lesotho.

‘We travel up to 800km (497 miles) a day from our home and back, often spending more than 10 hours on the road and seeing clients, mainly in small towns in our sales territory,’ Gerrie said. ‘These days we average between 8000 and 10,000km (4970 and 6213 miles) a month. In previous years we drove more than 12,000km (7456 miles) a month.’

Gerrie and Magriet have kept meticulous records of their million-kilometre driving odyssey, too: ‘We reckon the Polo used 66,666 litres (14,664 gallons) of fuel to get to the million mark. That’s an excellent figure of about 700km (434 miles) per 50-litre tank, or 15km a litre (6.6km/l, 43mpg). Working out the cost over the eight years at an average of R8/l, that’s about R533,000 in fuel costs,’ Gerrie states.

‘But the cost of maintaining the car has been so low we can’t calculate that. We have had two new fuel pumps fitted – one at 200,000km (124,274 miles) and the other at 800,000 (497,097 miles), but the engine has never been opened since we bought the car at Alan Hudson Motors in Nelspruit. Its clutch, starter, alternator, exhaust system, radiator and oil pump are all original. We always ensure that genuine VW parts are used when the vehicle goes for service. I have never experienced such outstanding reliability in any other car I have driven.’

[Source: Volkswagen South Africa]

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