Skip to main content

VW and Petter Solberg Launch 2017 Polo GTI Supercar

[See image gallery at www.vwvortex.com]

Fromer WRC and WRX champion Petter Solberg and his teammate Johan Kristoffersson were Stockholm, Sweden to launch their entry for the 2017 World Rallycross Championship.

The two will be racing under the banner of a brand new team, going from 0-60 in less than two seconds thanks to the 570 hp mill that moves the 2017 Polo GTI Supercar.

Solberg’s decision to join the team came as a shock earlier this year, as his team PSRX, which had been running a Citroen last season, joined in with Volkswagen Sweden to develop the car that Volkswagen Motorsport put together.

Although he has won the world rallycross title twice, Solberg will have his work cut out for him if wants to be the number one driver, since his new teammate, Johan Kristoffersson outfinished him (2nd place) last season.

“I’ve been P3 2015, I was P2 2016, and, I mean, in 2017 it would be a nice way to finish on the top spot,” said Kristoffersson, admitting, though, that a top spot in the team rankings was his main priority.

Although this was the first time that the car seen in public in its final livery, the Polo has been testing, which the two drivers say has been going well.

“It is a dream for me,” says Solberg. “We have worked towards this for so long, and now we have made it. It is hard to put into words just how happy I am. Every time I climb out of the car at the end of a test, I do so with a broad grin on my face.”

The team is running out of time to develop the car, though, as the first round of the 2017 WRX season starts on March 30 with the Barcelona RX.

The post VW and Petter Solberg Launch 2017 Polo GTI Supercar appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2n8AqKy
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers.  The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience.  So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf.  In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...