Volkswagen Motorsport India revealed the Polo RX Winter Project car celebrating 10 years in India.
The Volkswagen Polo RX, also dubbed as the the ‘Winter Project’ car is made to celebrate Volkswagen Motorsport India’s tenth anniversary and has a rear-engine with rear-wheel drive, made only for track use. As a part of Volkswagen Motorsport India’s tenth anniversary, which is a part of Volkswagen India group, they have revealed a specially commissioned Winter Project car. While the car has the exterior of a Volkswagen Polo, it has been developed completely by the factory team engineers and the technicians in India. This Polo however is a one-off build and can be rented by anyone for track days. The Polo RX as mentioned carries its engine at the rear and has a rear-wheel drive. The engine powering the Polo RX is the same engine that powers the Volkswagen Ameo Cup car. Surprisingly, the team worked during their ‘winter’ break and that is how the car was christened as the Polo Winter Project track car.
Volkswagen Motorsport in India has grown by several folds in the last nine years. From using developed cars from Germany to researching and developing cars in India from scratch. They say that they decided on the Winter Project car as it was something very unique and completely out of the box. Surprisingly, the car does not conform to any regulations, which makes it a perfect track machine.
At the heart of the Polo RX is the 1.8-litre direct injection turbocharged engine, same as the one used in the Volkswagen Ameo cup. The engine dishes out about 205 PS of power at 6100 RPM and has a maximum torque output of 320 Nm. The engine is mated to a sequential gearbox and it gets paddle shifters. The main challenge however was to redesign the complete drivetrain for the Polo RX. As the engine was to fitted in the rear, the team of engineers had to find a solution for it. They created the right mounts for the engine at the back along with the gearbox and suspension mounts.
The intercooler of the turbocharged motor is placed underneath the rear seat. Special air vents have also been designed to direct the air flow to the engine which now sits at the rear. Additionally the fuel and cooling system lines had to be worked on. The fuel tank was moved to the front as the intercooler had taken the fuel-tank’s space already. The team reportedly spent a whole lot of time working on the wiring and re-routing the systems integration. The suspension has also been worked on to suit the characteristics of the vehicle as well as the driver preference.
Speaking about the development of the Volkswagen Polo RX Winter Project car, a company official commented saying that they are very excited and proud of the team of young talented engineers and technicians who pulled this project off despite not having the access to high-end software and technology. The team completed the project in just three weeks which calls for an applause. A rear engine car is different in the performance department when compared to front wheel-drive race cars. The rear-wheel drive completely changes the dynamics of the vehicle and makes the steering inputs sharper, giving the front wheels more freedom to turn and enhancing the performance to a great extent.
The Volkswagen Polo RX Winter Project car cannot take part in any competitive events for now but the Volkswagen India team can suit the car for regulations across various sections of motorsports like rallying, circuit racing or autocross.
Volkswagen Polo RX
– It does not conform to any racing regulations making it usable for motorsport activities
– The Polo RX gets a 1.8-litre turbocharged engine, taken from the Ameo cup car
– It gets completely new systems under the hood & a differently tuned suspension system
