Volkswagen has launched the Polo R WRC car as well as the road going version in Monte Carlo to celebrate its entry into rallying. This version was showcased at the Worthersee Tour festival last year and now the production for limited edition road going versions will begin. Only 2500 cars will be built and will cost about Rs. 25 lakh in Europe. Bookings have started but deliveries will only commenced by September 2013.
The road going Polo R WRC vehicle has a turbo-charged 2.0-litre engine with 217 BHP of power and 350 Nm of torque and has a short shift, 6-speed manual gearbox. This enables the Polo R WRC to sprint from 0 – 100 km/hr in just 6.4 seconds with a top speed of 243 km/hr. The vehicle has a special updated sports chassis to handle all the power and gives the Polo extremely agile handling.
The exterior is made to look like the car it is based on, with aggressive front bumper and large air intakes up front and a roof spoiler and diffuser at the rear. The car is painted white with blue and grey stripes. The tires are huge low profile, 215/35 sections sitting on 18 inch ‘Cagliari’ wheels. The insides too boasts of sporty interiors, with light weight sports seats, black roof lining and aluminum-styled pedals. The centre of the seats and steering wheel are covered with black Alcantara leather.
Even though the Volkswagen Polo R WRC is very sport oriented, it does not lose out on equipment with airbags, climate control, a front center arm rest, cruise control, rain and light sensors, an audio and navigation system and an alarm as standard. It also includes a special winter package with heated seats, headlamp cleaners and heated screen washers. Volkswagen claims that inspite of the very powerful engine, the car has a decent fuel efficiency of 13.3 km/l and CO2 emissions of just 170 g/km.
The actual rally Polo too was launched at the event (pictured below), which has a 1.6-litre turbo-charged, 4-cylinder race engine producing a mind blowing 311 BHP of power and 425 Nm of torque. Like all rally cars, it has four-wheel drive and a 6-speed sequential gearbox. This car does 0 – 100 km/hr in just 3.9 seconds and has a top speed of 200 km/hr.
