Volkswagen disappointed rally fans when it withdrew
from the World Rally Championship at the end of last season. Now, less than a
year later, the German automaker has announced its return to the rally scene,
just in a very different capacity.
Instead of fielding its own Polo R WRC in the
top-tier rally series, VW is preparing to offer another version of the Polo to
customer teams. Previewed for the first time in this teaser sketch, the new
Polo GTI R5 is being built by the same people behind the previous version –
including VW Motorsport technical director François-Xavier “FX” Demaison and
Sebastien Ogier's race engineer Gerard-Jan de Jongh.
Full specifications haven't been announced, but the
R5 is being based on the new Polo GTI with a turbocharged four-cylinder engine
employing direct injection to channel 270 horsepower to all four wheels through
a five-speed sequential gearbox.
Once it's released in the second half of next year,
the Polo GTI R5 will join the Golf GTI TCR touring car in Volkswagen's growing
customer racing portfolio. It's a well-trodden path for the VW Group, with
other divisions offering customer racing cars like the Lamborghini Huracan GT3,
Bentley Continental GT3, Audi RS3 LMS, Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, Seat Leon
Cup, and (most pertinently) the Skoda Fabia R5 that competes in the same class.
