It’s Official: Volkswagen Out of Rally to Focus on New Technologies

Rumors of Volkswagen’s departure from the top rung of the World Rally Championship yesterday are now being confirmed by an official release from Volkswagen.

The record setting Polo R WRC will no longer race as VW refocuses itself on customer and electric racing.

“The Volkswagen brand is facing enormous challenges,” says Frank Welsch, head of technical development. “With the upcoming expansion in electrification of our vehicle range we must focus all our efforts on important future technologies.”

After four years in the WRC, Volkswagen Motorsport managed to win four manufacturers’ championships, four drivers’ championships, and four co-drivers’ championships, a feat only accomplished by one other team (Citroen) in World Rally history.

“We far exceeded our sporting goals in the WRC, now we are realigning Volkswagen Motorsport and moving the vehicle technology of the future more starkly into focus,” says Welsch.

As reported yesterday, VW will focus its efforts on customer racing in the form of the Golf GTI TCR, released earlier this year, and on the American Red Bull Global Rallycross Beetle GRC. The team has also revealed that it will look into expanding its activities in the series, which just announced an all-electric racing class.

On top of those, Volkswagen has announced that it will build a new Polo to R5 specifications. The new Polo will pick up from the outgoing Polo R WRC to race in WRC2.

Unlike the departing Polo R WRC, the Polo R5 (not an official name) will race against two-wheel-drive customer cars. All cars in the R5 class are powered by a 1.6-liter turbocharged engine with a 32mm restrictor, using a 5-speed gearbox, with a price capped at 180,000 Euros.

Although VW says that it will benefit from the Polo R WRC, it will be racing against its stablemate, the Skoda Fabia, which currently leads the Teams’ championship in WRC2. The Polo R5 will begin racing in 2018.

“I want to give our heartfelt thanks to our drivers and co-drivers for their outstanding achievements,” says Welsch. “They are not only unbelievably quick, but also extremely effective ambassadors for the Volkswagen brand.”

The post It’s Official: Volkswagen Out of Rally to Focus on New Technologies appeared first on VWVortex.

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

Comments

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...

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog