PoloDriver

If, like us, you’ve yet to see the 300bhp, four-wheel-drive Polo R WRC up close and personal, AutoMuseum Volkswagen is offering you the chance to do just that. It stars in a new exhibition, ‘Motorsport with Volkswagen’, which charts the development of the company’s motorsport programme over the past 60 years. Starting with the 1930s Berlin-Rome car, there’s also the Mille-Miglia Beetle from the 1950s, as well as 1960s Formula Vee racers, which laid the cornerstones from which the company’s motorsport activities are derived from today. Rally-winning Golfs also feature, as does a Dakar Rally Race Touareg. The Polo R WRC is the newest exhibit on display, and appears to be the non-running prototype car presented to the motoring press in Sardinia in May 2011.

The AutoMuseum Volkswagen is a 5000sq m building in which Volkswagen displays notable versions of its past and present models, just a stone’s throw away from the main plant, HQ and tourist attraction Autostadt in Wolfsburg. Opened in April 1985, it displays 140 vehicles on a rotation basis, so no two visits are likely to be the same. The Stiftung AutoMuseum Volkswagen can be found at Dieselstraße 35, 38446 Wolfsburg, Germany. The motorsport exhibition runs until 30 September 2012.

An automotive pick and mix (or ‘Pic ‘n’ Mix’ in Woolworths speak) – that’s the SMMT Test Day. Staged annually at Millbrook Proving Ground, Bedfordshire, it’s a one-day gathering for over 300 UK-based motoring journalists to test around 140 cars, provided by 33 car manufacturers and importers. Also a chance to meet the PR staff from the car makers and to meet and make contact with fellow writers and bloggers, we went along this year, after receiving an invite from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) who have organised the event for over 25 years. And for starstruck wannabe motoring writers like ourselves, SMMT Test Day also lets you get up close and personal with your writing heroes.

Millbrook is the ideal place for testing anything with wheels, be they two or four. Built in the 1960s by Vauxhall, it boasts a three-section, progressive-gradient and tight-corner Hill Route to represent alpine driving roads; outer and inner-handling courses (used on SMMT Test Day as the ‘City Course’); and the High-Speed Bowl, a two-mile circular banked circuit which is used, as the name implies, for high-speed testing. The facility is well-known, having been featured in numerous challenges for BBC’s Top Gear; it is used for tests in the UK motoring programme Fifth Gear; and has played a starring role in the James Bond film Casino Royale. Though well-known, the venue isn’t open to the public, as camouflaged prototypes of as yet unreleased cars can often be seen pounding the enclosed routes, undergoing final testing.

So, the perfect venue. And with 140 cars available to grab the keys of, it was recommended to make a shortlist to use Millbrook to the full. With around 30 cars that appealed, our shortlist was a hopeless one, being more of a ‘longlist’, so as the day progressed, we plumped for models from inside the Volkswagen Group, with some notable Polo-based models included for healthy in-house competition. With our list, Audi A1s followed in the tyre tracks of SEAT Ibizas and Volkswagen Ups, and in the end, only 12 cars made the final ‘tested’ list, some 18 short of our initial plan! But, it was our first year in attendance, and we still had a fantastic day meeting up with some fellow tweeters, putting faces to names and testing a variety of models. We’ll publish brief drives from last week’s event over the next few days.

We first heard about AutoTweetUp in September. Founded by editor of Racing and Waiting magazine, Tim Hutton, the #AutoTweetUp series of events aims to bring together influential tweeters in and around the automotive industry for manufacturer tours, networking, social events and anything else that gets like-minded car people together. Tim’s first event was at the 7 Hotel Diner in Kent back in September, and it was there we returned to yesterday, for the December 2011 AutoTweetUp, just in time for Christmas. As well as motoring journalists, car bloggers like us were in attendance, too, and as before, a diverse range of cars attended. Below are a few of our favourites from the afternoon (if there’s a caption missing then email rich@polodriver.com for one to be added). If you’d like to get involved with the AutoTweetUp scene, check out the AutoTweetUp website, or follow @autotweetup on Twitter.

Pause Play Play Prev | Next

OK, hands up, we’re fearsomely late with this one. As the winter takes the country in its damp, dark grasp, cast your mind back to the end of July, and the Polo Show 2011. An informal gathering organised by the UK’s Club Polo at Billing Aquadrome, Northamptonshire, the three-day event ran from 29-31 July, and blue skies on the day that we visited ensured a good turn out of Polos of all shapes and ages, and in all states of tune. As well as a field full of cars to pour over, Novatech were there with a rolling road, so owners could get an accurate reading of their performance figures. In addition to these activities, a self-judged Show ‘n’ Shine also took place, with the following results:

1 J815 JKM, 1992 Polo G40, 62 points
2 OTF 403R, 1977 Polo N, 61 points
3 H656 ERP, 1991 Polo G40, 49 points
4 G3 URO, 1991 Polo G40 custom, 42 points
5 J520 FCD, 1992 Polo G40, 32 points

Click through the gallery below to see highlights from the show. If you see you car and would like it cpationed, drop us a line at info@polodriver.com and let us know. Pictures: Martin Buck, Jon Gallant, and Rich Gooding.

Pause Play Play Prev | Next