PoloDriver

The new range-topping 104bhp 1.2 supercharged and turbocharged engine used by the forthcoming Polo SEL TSI has gone into production at Škoda’s Mladá Boleslav factory in the Czech Republic, famed for building the company’s range of power units. Production of the new four-cylinder powerplant has forced expansion of the plant. Speaking last week, Škoda’s head of engine manufacturing, Milan Stanek said: ‘This new unit is going to be one of the most important engines for the Volkswagen Group, and we are pleased that it is our plant that is going to manufacture it.’

[Source: CarAdvice]

With all the furore surrounding the rumours that Volkswagen might be considering a firecracking Polo R, we thought we’d share details of another high-performance Polo which was under consideration five years ago. We recently hinted at a design study for a hot shot Polo 2004-style. Well, here it is.

Rumoured to be called ‘R25’, ‘R18’ or ‘R23’ but commonly referred to as the R25, it was so-called due to a possible 2.5-litre engine configuration. But, let’s face it, Volkswagen was never going to sell a 2.5-litre Polo, so the numbers in the other proposed ‘R’ model designations also refer to engine displacements; in this case, 1.8 and 2.3.

We think the car we saw in 2004 at the fascinating and fabulous AutoMuseum Volkswagen in Wolfsburg was effectively a styling prototype. We’d seen photographs of the car on the internet before we went, but thought that the car had been stored away – it was never a permanent exhibit. So, imagine our surprise when in front of us sat a rare Mystic Blue piece of Polo history.

A little brother to the Golf R32, the R25 had a tough-looking bodykit made up of blistered wheelarches, deeper sills, larger spoiler and unique mesh-filled sports bumpers. Twin exhausts exited at the back, while 17″ Polo Dune BBS wheels filled the arches. A newly-developed 1.8, 2.3 or 2.5-litre engine was rumoured to have been fitted, but sources close to the museum stated that the car was in fact running a standard 1.4 unit.

This special one-off Polo was returned to Volkswagen’s development centre in Wolfsburg, and as far as we’re aware, was never seen again outside of the company. Why was the plug pulled? There could be a number of reasons. The on-sale price would have been high; there was no GTI version in the range at the time; or the bodykit might not have sat quite right with the feminine looks of the Series 4 Polo.

Whatever the reason, the car looked sensational, and it’s sad it never saw the light of day as a production Polo. Volkswagen is traditionally a conservative company and will no doubt keep a close eye on the sales of the recently-launched Golf and Scirocco Rs to see if a Polo version is worthwhile. But, we’ve recently read reports that the company has said no to the Polo R, stating that nothing smaller than a Golf will carry the ‘R’ badge, which, if correct, is a real shame.

We already thought that Volkswagen had pulled out all the stops marketing the new Polo in both the UK and European advertising campaigns. But, the headline stats at the end of this new video posted by the production company for the making of the ‘Ready For A New Class’ pan-European TV commercial make for interesting reading.

For a start, the spot was shot in Los Angeles (the car’s not even sold in the US, but rumours persist that it could be, so is this why two Polos were shipped there) in May of this year, using 10,370 metres of film. There were 115 crew members, who consumed 976 burgers and 1,643 cups of coffee and cumulatively travelled over 155,000 miles.

Seventeen locations provided backdrops for 20 actors and the whole shoot lasted 60 hours. Anything else? Oh yes, two identical red five-door Polos and one P!nk soundtrack. Not surprisingly, no budget figures are mixed in with all the other stats, but we can see why Volkswagen has used the same basic footage for all markets and adapted the marketing message for each territory.

Watch through or skip to 03:36 for the finished commercial.

From 10 July to the end of November, Volkswagen Austria is offering visitors the chance to win a brand new Polo, if you take part in the Polo Cup. In an innovative multiplayer game for the PC (sorry, Mac users), gamers can drive a new Polo around a track, with the aim to win a car or one of 25,000 euros-worth of other prizes.

But, in a change from the Apple iTunes store Volkswagen Polo Challenge app, it’s not all about speed. To win Volkswagen Austria’s Polo Cup, you have to get round in the fastest time, using the least amount of fuel. But, the company states on its website that the driving fun is still the centre of attention. And, like the Apple app, 3D graphics reportedly give good handling characteristics.

So, what are you waiting for? Download the game here, drive the fastest time and post your time online. You never know – if you post a fast time, your new Polo driving experience could be transformed from virtual to reality!

The PoloDriver widget is now available! If you’re a Polo driver and Mac user, you can now get all the latest PoloDriver.com news direct to your desktop. Built to run on OS X 10.4 and sit in Dashboard, the widget displays the latest headlines directly in its built-in viewer when it detects an internet connection.

Using the widget is easy. Click on the headline or read the introductory paragraph and then follow the ‘Read More’ link to go to the website for the full story. The article length can be made shorter or longer by clicking on the ‘i’ at the bottom right of the viewer, and can be set to show the full text of each article if so desired.

If you’d like an easy non-RSS way to catch up with all the latest news on PoloDriver.com, download the widget from here, open the zip file and install. Don’t forget to let us know what you think!