PoloDriver

PoloDriver.com editor Rich Gooding tells the story of how an original 1970s Polo ended up being parked on the Cartier Style et Luxe lawn at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed

The words ‘Polo’ and ‘Goodwood Festival of Speed’ rarely, if ever, appear in the same sentence. So it was with great excitement that I opened an email from one of the organising team of the UK’s – the world’s – greatest motorsport festival.

In addition to the obvious action of cars speeding up the hill in front of Goodwood House, the four-day event has static displays, too, the most prestigious area being the Cartier Style et Luxe lawn, which usually features priceless supercars and vintage machinery on the grass next to Lord March’s country house. For 2024, one section of the lawn was to celebrate the work of car designer Marcello Gandini, who worked for Italian styling house Bertone, and was said to have had a hand in the Audi 50 of 1974, which became the original Volkswagen Polo.

Unmolested example
I feel this may be too laboured a point, as numerous stories haven’t confirmed the authenticity of this claim, but Goodwood wanted a car for the lawn, so around two months before the event, tasked me with the task of finding an unmolested example of Volkswagen’s pretty 1970s supermini. One lead sadly didn’t happen, so a post on a couple of now almost-defunct Polo forums resulted in Stuart Turner’s gorgeous 84,000-mile Manila Green 1977 Polo L being picked for the event.

Having seen it on Thursday 11 July when the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed opened its gates, the car looked perfect, with all the period details present and correct. Stuart has done a fantastic job in restoring the car to a period specification and, placed near one entrance/exit gate, it was attracting as much attention as the Lamborghini Miura and Countach parked just a few feet away.

It has been a genuine honour to see a Polo at such a prestigious event, and if you’d like to catch a glimpse of Stuart’s immaculate Polo at Goodwood, head to the Cartier Style et Luxe lawn. The 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed started on 11 July, and runs through the rest of the weekend of 13-14 July at the Goodwood Estate near Chichester in the UK.

Building on the success from last year’s inaugural event, Volkswagen hosted its second ‘GTI Coming Home’ meeting at its Wolfsburg headquarters at the end of August. With cars littered around the nearby Volkswagen Arena and Autostadt visitor attraction, GTI fans from far and wide converged on Wolfsburg to celebrate all things sports VW.

Neil Birkitt from Volkswagen Driver magazine was one of the few UK journalists at the event, and he sent us a selection of images detailing the Polos in attendance. Unsurprisingly, not only was the new Polo GTI a star attraction, with road-going and new GTI R5 rally versions on display, but a large number of Polo R WRC road cars also turned up. The 217bhp limited edition models from 2013 lined up alongside examples of the World Rally Championship-winning title car itself, and made quite a sight.

As with last year’s debut meeting, one of the highlights of the GTI Coming Home event was the cavalcade of around 250 cars through the Wolfsburg plant itself, driving down Mittelstrasse to Südstrasse, passing the iconic Brand Tower – with it large and illuminated VW roundel – before ending at the Kraftwerk, the instantly-recognisable power station. The meeting also saw the covers pulled off the new Golf GTI TCR production car for the first time in Germany, while the all-electric, all-conquering I.D. Pikes Peak racing car was also on show.

A gallery is featured below, but a full five-page report appears in the November 2018 issue of Volkswagen Driver magazine, on sale now. It also includes the second part of PoloDriver.com editor Rich Gooding’s Polo GTI retrospective, focusing on the 9N3 GTI 1.8T. For more pictures and information, head down to your local newsagent, visit the Volkswagen Driver website, or download the magazine digitally at pocketmags.com.

GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Volkswagen Polo R WRCs at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Volkswagen Polo R WRCs at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Volkswagen Polo R WRCs at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Volkswagen Polo R WRCs at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Volkswagen Polo R WRCs at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Volkswagen Polo R WRCs at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Volkswagen Polo R WRCs at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Volkswagen Polo R WRCs at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Volkswagen Polo RX and Volkswagen Polo R WRC at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Volkswagen Polo RX and Volkswagen Polo R WRC at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

2016 Volkswagen Polo R WRC at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

2018 Volkswagen Polo GTI at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

2018 Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

2018 Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 at GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

GTI Coming Home 2018 event (Image: Neil Birkitt, Volkswagen Driver magazine)

Over the weekend of 26-28 June, the UK’s leading organisation for Volkswagen Polo owners once again staged its annual gathering. Previously called the ‘Polo Show’, for 2015 the name of the event was changed to more reflect its status and nature, being more of a social meet-up than a full-blown ‘show’ in the traditional sense.

Show ’n’ Shine
Whatever the name, it didn’t deter Polo owners from all corners of the UK descending on Billing Aquadrome in Northamptonshire for three days of Polo-based antics. With a Show ’n’ Shine on the Sunday, we made our way to the event to present the PoloDriver.com trophy for what we thought was the best car at the show. Shane Biggs’ 6N2 GTI was awarded the prize.

Eight trophies in total were up for grabs, with four (1st, 2nd, 3rd best cars in show and ‘People’s Choice’) awards chosen by the event attendees. Club Polo organisers chose the ‘Best Wheels’, ‘Best Interior’ and ‘Best Rat’ winners.

A relaxed and informal atmosphere is one of the nice things about the event, and as usual, there was a nice mix of older and newer cars, though sadly no Mk 1 Polos made the event in the model’s 40th anniversary year. To find out more about Club Polo or to join, visit clubpolo.co.uk.

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As with previous years, Stanford Hall 2014 opened the show season for many. A show with a traditional, laid-back atmosphere and a mixture of both old and new, air-cooled and water-cooled Volkswagens, weather rarely gets the better of it, and it was the same this year. The bright and sunny May Bank Holiday weather brought out myriad Volkswagen Group cars, all immaculately turned out. Here are a few of our favourites.

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