Three cars will be sent to Austria and the Baumschlager Rallye & Racing GmbH team run by Austria rally champion Raimund Baumschlager, who won the 2017 Austrian Rally Championship with a Polo R WRC. Three cars have also been sold to teams from Belgium: two to BMA and one Polo GTI R5 to THX Racing.
The longest journey – almost 11,000km – will be undertaken by three Polo GTI R5s, as they are shipped to Paraguay. Miguel Carrizosa/DIESA S.A., a Volkswagen importer in Paraguay, will run the cars at national events there.
Two Polo GTI R5s will be on their way to the Printsport Oy team in the home of rallying, Finland. Printsport has succesfully implemented projects with young and talented drivers like Esapekka Lappi, Ole Christian Veiby and Jari Huttunen.
They have Lukasz Pieniazek from Poland and Emil Lindholm, son of multiple Finnish champion Sebastian Lindholm, in their team. A further two Polo GTI R5s will be run by the HK Racing team in Italy. One rally GTI will also be sent to Portugal. And a GTI R5 has also been sold to Sweden and Kristoffersson Motorsport.
Each cars is assembled by hand in Hannover, and production is on course for customer delivery, said Volkswagen Motorsport sales and distribution head Juliane Gründl.
Like the production model, the Polo GTI R5 has a powerful straight four-cylinder turbo engine with direct fuel injection, mounted transversely in front of the front axle. The capacity of the rally car is limited to 1.6 litres, in accordance with regulations. This is enough to generate an impressive 272hp and maximum torque of 400Nm.
A close-stepped, sequential, five-speed racing gearbox and permanent four-wheel drive achieve outstanding acceleration on any surface – whether asphalt, gravel or snow. Weighing just 1,230kg, the rally GTI accelerates from 0 to 100kph in just 4.1 seconds.
The four-door, steel chassis, which serves as the basis for the assembly, is made at the plant in Pamplona, Spain. In accordance with FIA regulations, it is strengthened with a roll cage and other safety components. The Polo GTI R5 will be homologated in the summer of 2018.
In 2012, the International Automobile Federation FIA passed the R5 regulations for a new generation of rally cars, aimed mainly at customer teams, talented youngsters and privateers. Since then, more than 400 cars have been produced by five different manufacturers and have been in action in national and international championships worldwide.
