Volkswagen Motorsport India celebrates its 10th year with the ‘Winter Project Car’

An exciting news for motorsport enthusiasts in the country! Volkswagen Motorsport India is entering its tenth year in the country with quite a statement. To mark the occasion, the team has released images of a one-off track maniac. A rear engined and rear wheel drive Polo RX which they’ve dubbed as the ‘Winter Project Car’.

Read about VW Motorsport India’s successful INRC season here

The one-off Polo RX by Volkswagen Motorsport India

For the first time ever, the Volkswagen Motorsport India team has built something like this. The one-off Polo RX is powered by the same 1.8-litre engine from the Ameo Cup cars. Though this engine is mounted at the rear. This has resulted in a complete overhaul of the drivetrain. The turbocharged engine’s intercooler is placed underneath the rear seats. Furthermore, special airducts have been installed to channel air to the rear.

The team says that special pipes and ducts too were installed with precision. This was done in order to get the cooling and fuel system functioning. As the intercooler occupied the designated space of the fuel tank, the latter was shifted to the front and connected to the engine at the rear. Moreover, lot of development work went into designing the harness routing and the system integration. And to deliver a bespoke handling a performance the team has also tweaked the suspension setup.

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Talking about the development that has gone into the car, Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India said, “I am extremely excited about our ‘Winter Project’ car! It is commendable how the team has managed to pull off this project with limited access to high end software and technology. Young engineers and technicians in the team have shown real calibre by getting this masterpiece ready in less than three weeks!” He further added, “A rear engine, rear wheel drive car is tremendously different in terms of its performance as compared to our conventional front-engine, front wheel drive race cars. With the rear wheel managing the acceleration, the front wheels have more freedom to turn the car sharply and quickly. This has resulted in enhancing its dynamic performance to a great extent.”

2019 season and promoting motorsport in India

At the 2019 Ameo Cup, Volkswagen Motorsport India will continue to run the Ameo cars with minor tweaks. The driver selection was successfully conducted and the pre-season testing is set to begin in June followed by competitive racing in Coimbatore, Chennai and Greater Noida. Also, in a bid to promote different forms of motorsport in India, Volkswagen Motorsport India started the Customer Sport initiative. In this initiative, Volkswagen Motorsport India started building rally spec VW cars for those who wished to participate in the INRC. They also support them with technical know how and service across the country.