Volkswagen sells its first 15 Polo GTI R5s

Unveiled to the public last fall, the sixth generation Volkswagen Polo GTI in its R5 version quickly found customers. The German manufacturer announced Tuesday the identity of the first fifteen buyers, including several well-known names in the rally et rallycross global. No sales have yet been recorded in France.

With a power of 272 horsepower delivered to all four wheels, the Polo GTI R5 was carefully developed throughout 2017. “We are extremely delighted by the positive feedback regarding our R5”, boasted Sven Smeets, director of Motorsport at Volkswagen. The demand is enormous, it is an undeniable source of satisfaction and additional motivation to deliver the teams the best rally car there is. »

The largest customer is the Austrian team Baumschlager Rallye & Racing GmbH led by national champion Raimund Baumschlager. The latter is a loyal fan of the Wolfsburg (Germany) brand and had previously collected one of the Polo WRC when stopping the factory program. Two models will travel across Belgium from the second half, one for the BMA team, the other with THX Racing.

The structure of the world rallycross champion (World RX), the Kristoffersson Motorsport a fait l’acquisition d’un modèle, tout comme le Printsport Oy en Finlande. Cette équipe a lancé des jeunes talents comme Esapekka Lappi (aujourd’hui pilote officiel Toyota en WRC) ou Jari Huttunen (pilote Hyundai en WRC-2). Le HK Racing s’occupera d’étrenner la Polo GTI R5 au Portugal. Enfin, trois exemplaires s’apprêtent à parcourir 11 000 kilomètres en direction du Paraguay, après avoir été achetée par un importateur Volkswagen.

It is not planned to see the Polo GTI R5 in competition before the second half of 2018. “We are following the basic plan”, explains Juliane Gründl, head of Sales and Distribution for Volkswagen Motorsport. “We are currently structuring our production as well as the after-sales phase. »