VW Wants to Show off its Canceled 2018 Polo WRC

Although it came as a result of some unfortunate dealings in the head office, VW’s WRC program did what most performers can only dream of doing: quitting while it was on top.

Having won the WRC championship four years straight, VW’s team left the sport before it could be beaten.

So sudden was the departure, though, that VW actually had one of its cars just about ready to go for the 2018 season, reports Autosport. And though it will never be used in competition, the car will eventually be shown in public in full livery for the fans.

“It’s not going anywhere,” Sven Smeets, VW Motorsports’ director, told Autosport, “and one day we will show it in the way we should show it – so people can look at it as the proper car and not the zebra car because of course, everybody knows this car.”

Smeets admits that he doesn’t quite know when or where the car might be shown, but he does at least hope to give it all the pomp and circumstance that it would have received if it had been unveiled, like the rest of the cars, at season’s first rally in Monte Carlo—which was held two weeks ago.

“It’s in all of our best interests to do this,” argues Smeets, but he still has to work everything out with the team’s partners.

The Polo was highly anticipated given VW’s proven excellence in the series, and this season’s new rules. The WRC allowed more downforce and more track width, which means that this season’s cars are even faster than they were in 2017.

And with four-time champion Ogier at the wheel, it would have been a season to remember.

As for who would drive the Polo-that-never-was, Smeets would like to have one of the former team’s drivers take the wheel—Sebastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala, or Andreas Mikkelsen—but since they all have seats with other teams now, that might be difficult.

Whatever the case, Autosport reports that VW may release a teaser for the Polo WRC in the coming months.

[source: Autosport]

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