PoloDriver

Polo and Volkswagen fan Billy Cordes tells the story of ‘Gertrude’, his 1989 Polo hatchback. With the help of his dad and many new parts and paint, he has rebuilt his 21 year-old Helios Blue Polo CL hatchback and restored it to something resembling its former ‘as new’ glory

We have always been a VW driving family. My dad has owned a few old Beetles in his driving career and rebuilt a written-off Wizard Beetle Roadster for my mum many years back. He now owns a rusty ’72 Bay Window camper that hasn’t moved for a while. My grandad has also had Beetles, as well as my uncle, but they now both drive mid-’90s Golfs. My love for the Polo started on a family holiday to Cornwall in 2003 where I saw a white Mk 2 hatchback sat near the beach with a surfboard on top. The car was quite ratty and that made it even cooler.

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The Polo G40 celebrated its 25th birthday at the AutoMuseum Volkswagen over the weekend, with a gathering of early Polo G40 fans from all around the world. Around 40 Polo G40s from 1987 and 1989 and their owners were expected at the AutoMuseum Volkswagen on Saturday, coinciding with the first International Polo G40 meeting in Wolfsburg. Owners had their photos taken with their cars at Castle Wolfsburg, setting for the original 1985 Polo G40 press photo (above), before moving onto the AutoMuseum Volkswagen where their vehicles were presented to visitors in the evening. The museum itself presented two special Polos of its own: the 155bhp rear-engined Sprint, and the Ökopolo, an economically-minded study, and a precursor of the modern-day Polo BlueMotion.

Volkswagen developed the 40mm spiral-shaped G-Läder supercharger in 1985, and fitted it to a trio of pre-production G40s to set long-distance speed records. Driven by Volkswagen engineers, motoring journalists and racing drivers, the cars set new 1300cc class records for both speeds over 24 hours (130.08mph) and average speed over 5000km (127.75mph). A production version of the G40 was presented at the 1985 Frankfurt Motor Show and had the designation Polo GTG40. A limited run of 500 cars with 115bhp became available in 1987 and between 1988 and 1999 a further 1500 models were made, all left-hand drive, and all selling out immediately. The Polo G40 went mainstream in 1990 with the launch of the facelifted Series 2 Polo, available in coupé form only and with 113bhp. It was sold until 1994, when the third-generation Polo was launched.

We’ve been doing a bit of late summer sprucing here at PoloDriver. There are still some parts of the site that we’ve still got to go through, but today, we’ve added more information about two Series 2 Polo special models; the Polo Mikado and the Polo Peppermint. The Peppermint (pictured above), was, as far as we know, only available in France and was basically a rebadged Fox. Available from September 1991, the Peppermint was available with a 1043cc 45bhp petrol engine and a 1398cc 48bhp diesel unit. Also built around the base-model Fox, the Polo Mikado was on sale year later, and featured special paint finishes (including the unique Violet Blue) and brightly-coloured interior trim. Other embellishments included exterior colour-matched wheel trim rings. Head over to the Series 2 specials page to find out more, and to let us know of any unique models we may have missed.

Here’s a long-forgotten TV commercial for the then-new facelifted Series 2 Polo. Arriving as the first small car range in the UK to fitted with three-way catalytic converters as standard, this clever 50-second TV spot from 1990 features a pristine white GT Coupé parked on a busy street and getting dirtier and dirtier as the seasons and day-to-day life debris pass it by. Soundtracked by ‘Oh What A Beautiful Morning’ (we don’t know singer; the song was covered by so many artists), we remember seeing the ad on TV at the time. As the car gets covered in more and more soot, grime, and weather and traffic-related dirt, the owner drives it off and the pay-off line is revealed: ‘The new Volkswagen Polo. Cars don’t come any cleaner.’ Understated genius.

[Source: m4ttyf via the Club Polo forum.]

Tying in neatly with its 2010 Polo GTI vs SEAT Ibiza Bocanegra twin test, Auto Express has put an immaculate 1991 Polo G40 through its paces on the same Welsh roads as the modern in-house rivals. Owned by Volkswagen Classic in Germany, the Nineties Polo even has a very apt ‘WOB-PO-40’ licence plate. The Polo G40 became a top-flight mainstay in the Polo range in 1991, following small volume production runs on the continent in the mid-1980s. Sharing supercharging as a means of propulsion (the new Polo GTI also has a turbocharger), the 113bhp ‘coupé’ weighed a flyweight 830kg and could crack 60mph from rest in only 8.1 seconds. Rawer than the latest model, read how the UK motoring magazine seemed to enjoy the driving experience.

[Image: Nathan Morgan/Auto Express]