VW Polo RX Might Still Race Next Year

Volkswagen’s decision to back out of top tier rallying surprised a lot of people, in no small part because they were already developing their 2017 World Rally Championship car. In fact, the Polo WRC was close enough to being race-ready, that now VW says it’s worth finishing.

That’s the news coming out of Germany, where VW has decided to prepare the 2017 Polo WRC to be approved for racing.

“Lots of private teams have been asking to run the car and, while there is no decision on whether we will do that yet, with development 99% complete it made sense to complete the final hoops required for homologation so we can if necessary,” Frank Welsch, head of development, told Autocar. “At the moment all I can say people are interested and we are keeping the possibility open.”

In fact, it looks like this was the plan as of the announcement, because development of the WRC car never stopped. In fact, up until last week, the Polo was reportedly being tested by former world champion, Marcus Gronholm.

Volkswagen will have to sell the car soon, though, as the 2017 WRC season is set to begin in Monaco on January 19.

[source: Autocar]

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