The Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 will debut in Catalonia

« With its variable surfaces, the Rally from Spain is obviously perfectly suited to a very difficult first test in competitive conditions. » Sven Smeets, boss of Volkswagen motorsport, and his troops did not choose the Catalan event by chance to start the Polo GTI R5.

The only round offering mixed asphalt-dirt terrain, the Rally of Spain will be the ideal terrain to confront the latest from Wolsburg with its rivals in the category, Skoda Fabia R5, Citroën C3 R5, Peugeot 208 T16 R5, Ford Fiesta R5…

With this in mind, Volkswagen has postponed the approval of its car, initially scheduled for the end of summer, to October 1 in order to conduct new development tests. “A customer-oriented car almost has to be developed even more thoroughly than a WRC for a work team, underlines Jan de Jongh, project leader.

Once the car has been successfully homologated, a customer often does not have the opportunity to make changes or test the car thoroughly. For this reason, we are taking the time to provide our customers with a fully developed and fast Polo GTI R5 from October. »

Volkswagen conducted tests on different types of surfaces, including snow with Petter Solberg. The Rally of Spain should also allow Volkswagen Motorsport to ensure that the transition from an asphalt configuration to a gravel configuration is completed within the allotted time, set at 75 minutes.