Volkswagen enters 2011 WRC events.

Volkswagen have started gearing up for their Polo R WRC programme by entering 2 young drivers in both the Rally Finland and Rally Germany.  Volkswagen Motorsport are entering a pair of Skoda Fabia S2000s on each event to gain experience for the whole team (including on event and off event personnel) on WRC rallies before it enters the 2013 World Rally Championship with the Polo R WRC. The are also using the events as assessment of potential drivers for their WRC programme, including development of the car in 2012.  Andreas Mikkelsen (22) and Joonas Lindroos (26) will drive the VW Motorsport Skoda Fabias in Finland with Hans Weis Junior (24) and Christian Riedermann (23) taking over driving duties in Germany.  Volkswagen Motorsport are expected to enter more rounds of the 2011 WRC as they assess more drivers and gain valuable experience for there forth coming challenge.

New Volkswagen Scirocco GT24

Volkswagen Scirocco GT24

Volkswagen has fair introduced their racing edition of the Scirocco GT24 at Wörther Lake for the concern to see. Yet, this run car has been proved by the champions Carlos Sainz and Hans-Joachim Stuck. Volkswagen has also centralised on their 16-valve injection engine with a turbocharger and an intercooler scheme, to increase torque up to 340 Mathematician meters. It starts at 2,100 rpm, based on the dual clutch gearbox (DCG). An air of an inexpensive stargaze car starts here, innate in the mettle of this Scirocco. Volkswagen Scirocco GT24

Luxury Volkswagen New Compact Coupe

This is the Volkswagen New Compact Coupe (NCC), Wolfsburg’s Detroit show star. Looking a lot like a “poor man’s Audi A5″ the NCC is powered by a hybrid powertrain which combines a 1.4-litre TSI engine with 148 bhp and 220 Nm and a 27 bhp electric motor VW calls E-motor. Naturally, power goes to the front wheels via a 7-speed DSG gearbox.

VW quotes great consumption and emission figures – 23.8 km/l economy and 98 g/km of CO2 to be precise. As a comparison, the Eos Bluemotion is rated at 16.1 km/l and 144 g/km. Performance is not sacrificed to achieve this; 227 km/h top speed and 0-100 km/h in 8.6 seconds are resepectable.

A 1.1 kWh lithium-ion battery pack stored in the NCC’s rear powers the E-motor. Efficiency measures include regenerative braking, stop-start and a “coast down” measure, where engine is disengaged from transmission as soon as the driver releases the gas pedal. This is even possible at higher speeds, as in highway cruising. Drag losses are eliminated, so the NCC coasts for a long time to save fuel.

At 4.54m long and 1.78m wide, the NCC has a similar footprint to the Jetta, although it has a lower roofline and longer wheelbase (2.65m) than the sedan. Boot volume is 380 litres. The four-seat coupe is positioned between the Scirocco and Passat CC. You can probably image that the new Mk6-based Jetta will be a four door version of this one.

Everything looks highly ready for production, from the simple, cleanly designed body to the cabin that uses parts found in current VW models. Chief Designer Klaus Bischoff describes the NCC as having a “timeless dynamic and purist elegance that is typical of Volkswagen”. When will it be launched? “When the time is right,” is the statement in the press release.

Volkswagen Set For Podium Clean Sweep - top three positions in the 2010 Dakar

Volkswagen looks set to make a clean sweep of the top three positions in the 2010 Dakar, as the “World’s Toughest Race” enters its final stage from San Rafael to Buenos Aires, the finish point. In the overall lead after 13 stages is VW’s former WRC champion Carlos Sainz, but he’s only leading teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah by just two minutes and 48 seconds. American Mark Miller looks to have secured the final podium spot – he is over 31 minutes behind Sainz but almost two hours ahead of Stephane Peterhansel, the highest placed X-Raid BMW driver in fourth.

The penultimate stage was won by nine-time Dakar winner Peterhansel. With that, the Frenchman has won four stages in this year’s race, extending his record of stage victories to 55. The relatively smooth and fast wrap up stage will start today evening in South America.

Volkswagen Golf R

Volkswagen {link} have given the motoring world its first official look at the range topping Golf, the Golf R. Meant as a direct replacement for the out going mark 5 Golf R32 the mark 6 Golf R offers 270PS (a 20PS increase over the R32) and 350Nm of torque from a 2 litre turbocharged engine, thereby becoming the most powerful production Golf ever made. The TSI engine in the Golf R is similar to that fitted to the GTI but not the same. Originating in the mark 5 GTI the engine has undergone a large amount of development to produce 270PS; this includes stiffening of the cylinder block, new turbo, new intercooler, high pressure injectors and heavy duty internal parts.
As with the old R32 the Golf R uses Volkswagen’s 4motion 4 wheel drive system to transmit its power to the road, when combined with a DSG gearbox this means the Golf R can sprint from 0-62mph in a creditable 5½ seconds carrying on to an electronically limited top speed of 155mph.
The latest generation 4motion fitted to the Golf R is the most sophisticated yet and, for the first time, will allow almost all the power to be transmitted to the rear wheels only. The system is supposed to react quicker and smoother that the generation before thanks to the use of a new, pump driven pre-charged hydraulic system. Development of the transmission, and Golf R in general, started in the spring of this year at the motor industries favourite test track, the Nürburgring.
Working in conjunction with 4motion is enhanced ESP (with a specific ‚Sport’ mode designed predominantly for track use) and suspension that sits 25mm lower than standard. Wheels are 18“ as standard with 19“ optional, standard tyre size is 225/40..
Styling wise the Golf R To set the Golf R apart from a conventional Golf or has a new front fitted with LED running lights, a new rear bumper with a gloss black diffuser that houses the trademark pair of centrally exiting exhausts. The Golf R also comes a new black grille, wing mirrors and a set of sill extensions. Bi-xenon headlights are standard providing excellent forward lighting, the rear lights are unique to the Golf R with high-intensity LED bulbs and behind smoked lenses.
The interior remains traditional Golf with extra R badging and detailing, as per other R models this includes pedals, steering wheel and sill protectors.Volkswagen have mentioned that the Golf R (produced, incidentally, by Volkswagen Individual) is a more extreme performance model than the Scirocco R, claiming that where the Scirocco stops in terms of performance and handling the Golf R starts. Certainly Ford, Opel/Vauxhall and Renault will be studying the Golf R very carefully to see if it does set new standards in the performance (or ‚hot’) hatch segment.
Sales commence at the end of the year with prices expected to start around £28,500.

British Formula 3, Rockingham.

Mercedes powered teams redressed the victory count in this year’s championship by winning both races this weekend. Nick Tandy claimed an emotional victory in race one for his family run JTR whilst Marcus Ericsson took the spoils in race 2 driving his Mercedes powered Double R Dallara.
Top Volkswagen powered driver in race 1 was Carlin driver Max Chilton who finished 5, race two was better for VW poered teams with both Carlin and T-Sport getting drivers on the podium. T-sport driver Adriano Buzaid claimed 3rd overall with Henry Arundel finishing 2nd in his Carlin prepared Dallara.
Volkswagen powered driver Daniel Ricciardo still leads the championship despite crashing out of the first race at Rockingham.

ADAC Zurich 24 Hours, Nürburgring.

This year’s Nürburgring 24 hour race saw a historical achievement as the Manthey Porsche {link} team claimed its 4th successive victory.
After a race long battle with the Abt Audi R8 LMS the Timo Bernhard, Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Marcel Tiemann Porsche 911 GT3 RSR came home with a winning margin of 1 lap.
Behind the Christian Abt, Jean-Francois Hemroulle, Pierre Kaffer, Lucas Luhr Audi R8 LMS of came another Manthey prepared car, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S car of Emmanuel Collard, Wolf Henzler, Richard Lietz and Dirk Werner. Uwe Alzen, Sascha Bert, Lance David Arnold and Christopher Mies finished 4th in their Porsche 997 GT3 Cup with the Phoenix Racing Audi A8 LMS of Marc Basseng, Marcel Fässler, Mike Rockenfeller and Frank Stippler rounding out the top 5.
Volkswagen scored an impressive 17th overall with their natural gas powered Scirocco as well as a class win and 15th overall with their petrol powered version.

New Volkswagen TSI and TDI engines.

Volkswagen are leaders in engine "downsizing" with their TSI concept offering large capacity engine perfromance from small capacity engines. The idea behind this so-called downsizing is that a smaller capacity engines are more economical, efficient and environmentally friendly (as well as cheaper to tax in many countries).

The latest TSI engine from Volkswagen debuted in Austria recently, the 1.2TSI. Destined for the both the new Polo and Golf the 1.2TSI offers all the benefits of a small capacity petrol engine but with 105PS and maximum torque from 1500rpm.

To compliment the 1.2TSI Volkswagen have also launched a 1.6 TDI engine which will, once again, debut later this year in both the Polo and Golf. Available with 3 different performance levels this new TDI engine is likely to become the staple diesel engine in the small Volkswagen range. The 1.6TDI will be available with 75PS, 90PS and 105PS.

Both the 1.2TSI and 1.6TDI will, naturally, fully comply with the Euro 5 emission regulations and should be available with both manual and DSG transmissions.

British Formula 3 – honours even.

Victories in round three and four of the British F3 championship {link} were shared equally between Mercedes and Volkswagen powered teams.
Renger van der Zande took his Hitech run Dallara Mercedes to a dominant victory in race one at Silverstone last weekend (round 3 of the championship).
Victory in race 2 (round 4) fell to Daniel Ricciardo who took his Carlin prepared Dallara Volkswagen passed team mate Max Chilton in a daring late race manoeuvre to clinch victory.
Chilton’s weekend was slightly bitter-sweet having secured pole position for both races he was only able to finish 2nd and 3rd in races 1 and 2 of the weekend.
After his round 4 win Australian Ricciardo has stretched his championship lead to 28 points.

Passat ends Prius’ reign!

Volkswagen {link} have scored an impressive environmental victory over Toyota and the Prius. Seen as THE green car the Toyota Prius has just been beaten to the title of most environmental car by the Volkswagen Passat 1.4TSI EcoFuel. The Passat outperformed the Prius on economy and emissions in the ADAC’s Eco Test 2009 making it the leanest and most environmentally friendly car available in Germany.
With over 900 cars tested the result really is significant as is the fact that the winning car is not an electro-hybrid. In fact the EcoFuel concept could shake the electro-hybrid concept to its very core.
By using both a supercharger and turbocharger (as seen on petrol TSI engines) Volkswagen have been able to produce an exceptionally clean engine that runs on natural gas but offers petrol performance. The VW Passat EcoFuel offers a 0-62 time of just under 10 seconds with a top speed of around 130mph. Using gas alone it has a range of over 270 miles which can be extended to a total of around 550 miles by using petrol.
Volkswagen have proved the EcoFuel concept is environmentally excellent and are expected to introduce it into their smaller (and lighter) models quickly. An EcoFuel Jetta should offer even better driving and environmental performance than the larger Passat, the Prius’ time appears to be passing and passing quickly.

British Formula 3.

The first 2 rounds of this year's British Formula 3 {link} series saw returnee Volkswagen {link} win both races. After an absence of over 15 years Volkswagen engines were powering British F3 cars once again last weekend with unexpectedly impressive results.

Series front runners Carlin Motorsport {link} switched from Mercedes power over the winter and were rewarded with victory in both races as Australian Daniel Ricciardo dominated both rounds. Volkswagen's other British team T Sport {link} has a slightly less successful debut with the Wolfsburg's company engines, struggling for outright pace with their best placed driver finishing in the bottom half of the top 10 on both occasions.

B&B VW Eos

B&B {link} have created a highly impressive and exceptionally powerful version of the Volkswagen Eos to complete their range of tuning options for VW’s ever popular cabriolet.
By turbo-charging the 3.2 litre V6 Eos B&B have been able to extract a staggering 500PS and 650Nm of torque giving a claimed 0-62mph time of 4.2 seconds and a top speed (according to B&B) of 190mph, making this particular Eos exceptionally fast indeed! Naturally B&B haven’t just bolted a turbo on to the V6 and hoped for the best, the engine tuning is careful, considered and to the highest specification and includes items such a forged pistons, fuel pump, inlet manifold, exhaust system, engine management, hoses, etc.
To compliment the extensive engine modifications B&B’s 3.2 turbo Eos come with the choice of 6 pot brake callipers, braided flexible hoses and adjustable coilover suspension. These upgrades help keep the Eos as driver friendly as possible whilst allowing the sheer power of the engine to be transmitted safely to the tarmac.
In conjunction with the extreme engine package the B&B VW Eos comes with a more subtle styling kit including side skirts, front and rear spoilers and a rear valance. There are also a range of wheels available in 8x18”, 8½x18” and 8½x19”.
All of the brake, suspension, styling and wheels options are available to fit any VW Eos and B&B offer a complete range of (more mundane) engine tuning kits for all Eos models. Their 3.2 V6 turbo just happens to be the ultimate performance Eos currently available!

Volkswagen Golf R20

Volkswagen have seemingly opted to scrap the sweet sounding top preforming V6 powered Golf R32 replacing it with a 2 litre turbocharged 4 cylinder Golf known as the R20.

It may have a smaller model number but the R20 will out perform the R32 in all areas. Volkswagen will continue the Golf R tradition by making the 270PS direct injection R20 four wheel drive.

Performance is expected to be better than any of the current hot hatch range, including the new Ford Focus RS, with pricing being exceptionally competitive.

Dakar top 15 after stage 2.

Volkswagen team mates Carlos Sainz, Michel Perin and Giniel De Villiers, Dirk Von Zitzewitz moved into the top 2 places of this year's Dakar yesterday on the Santa Rosa de la Pampa to Puerto Madryn stage. Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, Tina Thorner in their BMW X3 CC have dropped from 1st overall to 4th overall.
With another 13 stages to complete through some of the toughest tourain in South America the final leaderboard will most likely look completely different, it is nice to see German manufacturers doing so well at present though!

1.	Carlos Sainz, Michel Perin	Volkswagen Touareg
2.	Giniel De Villiers, Dirk Von Zitzewitz	Volkswagen Touareg
3.	Stephane Peterhansel, Jean-Paul Cottret	Mitsubishi Racing Lancer
4.	Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, Tina Thorner	BMW X3 CC
5.	Joan "Nani" Roma, Lucas Cruz Senra	Mitsubishi Racing Lancer
6.	Luc Alphand, Gilles Picard	Mitsubishi Racing Lancer
7.	Mark Miller, Ralph Pitchford	Volkswagen Touareg
8.	Orlando Terranova, Alain Guehennec	BMW X3 CC
9.	Krzysztof Holowczyc, Jean-Marc Fortin	Nissan Navara
10.	Robby Gordon, Andy Grider	Hummer H3
11.	Guilherme Spinelli, Marcelo Vivolo	Mitsubishi Pajero
12.	Leonid Novitskiy, Oleg Tyupenkin	BMW X3 CC
13.	Peter Van Merksteijn, Eddy Chevaillier	BMW X3 CC
14.	Thierry Magnaldi, Guy Leneveu	SMG Porsche
15.	Balazs Szalay, Laszlo Bunkoczi	Opel Antara RR

Volkswagen Roadster.

This months Detroit Motorshow {link} sees Volkswagen's Concept R design return as the Volkswagen Roadster, a virtually production ready show car instead of a design study.
The mid-engined V6 two seater sportscar is expected to feature many of the ground breaking elements showcased by the Concept R including LED front and rear lights (front lights similar to the those on the new Audi R8 V10), seating position and mounting.

For the conspiracy theorists amongst you this Roadster could well prove to be the link between Volkswagen {link} and Porsche's Boxster/Cayman platform.....

Dakar leaderboard after stage 1

The top 10 positions in this year's Dakar rally (after stage 1) are as follows:~
1. Al-Attiyah, Thörner BMW X3CC 2h36m15s
2. Sainz, Périn Volkswagen Race Touareg + 2:17
3. de Villiers, von Zitzewitz Volkswagen Race Touareg + 2:40
4. Miller, Pitchford Volkswagen Race Touareg + 4:21
5. Alphand, Picard Mitsubishi Racing Lancer + 4:44
6. Peterhansel, Cottret Mitsubishi Racing Lancer + 4:54
7. Terranova, Guehennec BMW X3CC + 5:09
8. Roma, Cruz Senra Mitsubishi Racing Lancer + 5:11
9. Holowczyc, Fortin Nissan Navara + 7:44
10. van Merksteijn, Chevaillier BMW X3CC + 10:39

Dieter Depping and Timo Gottschalk in their Volkswagen Race Touareg are 80th overall an hour and 31 mins behind the leader after a first stage filled with enermous highs and lows. Having lead for most of the way an electrical fault struck their Touareg abd sent them spiralling down the leader board. A philosophical Depping said "The start of the first stage ran positively. We found our pace quickly and were able to maintain it. I felt very comfortable in the Race Touareg again. However, 80 kilometres before the finish we had a technical and obvious electrical problem. The engine wouldn´t rev above 2,000 rpm anymore and so we lost an hour. Some of this also because we attempted to repair the problem with what we had on board and lost additional time as a result. However, all is not lost. The Dakar Rally still has a lot of challenges in store for us and our rivals."

Stage 2 Santa Rosa de la Pampa to Puerto Madryn starts today and offers over 235 kms of competitive driving to the teams. Volkswagen are hoping to capitalise on their excellent start (Depping will be hoping to claw some time back!!) whilst Nasser Al-Attiyah & Tina Thörner in their BMW X3CC will be hoping to extend their lead over former World Rally Champiuon Carlos Sainz.

Dakar 2009

Tomorrow sees the start of the 2009 Dakar {link}.
German manufacturers are well represented on the entry list with the works Volkswagens starting the event as joing favourites for outright victory. Below is a list of the top 20 starters (in the car section) plus other notable German powered vehicles.

Cars in bold are pictured in this post, underlined means there's a link through to the team's website.

300	Stephane Peterhansel Jean-Paul Cottret		Mitsubishi Lancer
301	Carlos Sainz, Michel Perin		Volkswagen Touareg
302	Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah, Tina Thorner		BMW X3 CC
303	Luc Alphand, Gilles Picard		Mitsubishi Lancer
304	Joan "Nani" Roma, Lucas Cruz Senra		Mitsubishi Lancer
305	Giniel De Villiers, Dirk Von Zitzewitz		Volkswagen Touareg
306	Guerlain Chicherit, Matthieu Baumel		BMW X3 CC
307	Dieter Depping, Timo Gottschalk		Volkswagen Touareg
308	Mark Miller, Ralph Pitchford		Volkswagen Touareg
309	Robby Gordon, Andy Grider		Hummer H3
310	Hiroshi Masuoka, Pascal Maimon		Mitsubishi Lancer
312	Christian Lavieille		Proto Dessoude
313	Miguel Barbosa, Miguel Ramalho		BMW X3
314	Stephane Henrard, Serge Bruynkens		Volkswagen Buggy HRT TDI
315	Orlando Terranova, Alain Guehennec		BMW X3 CC
316	Leonid Novitskiy, Oleg Tyupenkin		BMW X3 CC
317	Krzysztof Holowczyc, Jean-Marc Fortin		Nissan Navara
318	Peter Van Merksteijn, Eddy Chevaillier		BMW X3 CC
319	Jean De Azevedo, Youssef Haddad		Mitsubishi Pajero
320	Thierry Magnaldi, Guy Leneveu		Buggy SMG Porsche
325	Yvan Muller		Buggy SMG MONO Porsche
329	Balazs Szalay, Laszlo Bunkoczi		Opel Antara V6 RR
330	Rene Kuipers, Filipe Palmeiro		BMW X3 CC
335	Alfie Cox, Jurgen Schroder		Buggy SMG Porsche
347	Ricardo Leal Dos Santos, Filipe Palmeiro		BMW X5 CC
360	Erik Van Loon, Marc Wams		Volkswagen Buggy HRT TDI
361	Albert Michiels, Cedric Legein		Volkswagen Buggy HRT TDI
381	Jean-Pascal Besson, Yves Kornstein		Mercedes M Class
385	Etienne Smulevici, Jean-Jacques Martinez		Buggy SMG Porsche
386	Christian Barbier, Jean-Michel Richaud		Mitsubishi Pajero
387	Eric Bernard, Jean-Noel Cornuaille		BMW X3
395	Javier Herrador, Victor Vico		BMW X5
417	Werner Zoetaert, Katrien Boussier		Audi TT Buggy
455	Mark Dutton, Simon Dutton		Buggy Bremont Audi
492	Daniel Saskin, Damir Bruneruan		Opel Antara V6 RR

Volkswagen Scirocco Studie R

Volkswagen used this month's Bologna Motor Show to give a very serious glimpse of what the R20 Scirocco will look like. Based on the, very successful, Scirocco GT24 racing car (pictured below) the Studie R benefits from an impressive power hike over the range topping GT, offering an impressive 266PS.
To cope with the extra power the Studie R has 4-pot front brake calipers protected from the tarmac by 5 spoke, heavily detailed 19" wheels. The suspension has also been adapted to handle the extra performance of the Studie R.
Styling is more aggressive in a definite nod to the GT24 as well as practical performance requirements. A deep front bumper/spoiler combination provides extra cooling air as well as combating lift whilst the rear roof spoiler also combats lift but less subtly!
The interior's acres of carbon fibre was more for the Bologna show, than any production model, as were the red and green details on the show car's white exterior (including the Italian tricolore and Bologna 08 for those who weren't sure where they saw the car.....)

4WD for the VW Golf 6

Volkswagen {link} are offering a 4Motion version of the Golf 6 (hatchback and Estate) right from the outset. normally VW have launched four-wheel-drive models much later into the model life, many times waiting until high performance models require a 4WD system to cope with the extra power on offer. This time VW have decided that a 2 litre TDI 4Motion model will be available as of now in Germany and a few other European countries - whether this model appears in other markets depends largely on importer decisions which may not bode too well for the UK
Whether the new Golf Plus Cross (pictured below) will get a 4Motion model remains to be seen.

VW briefly becomes the world's biggest firm

Astounding German stock market {link} activity on Tuesday the 28th of October 2008 briefly made Volkswagen {link} the world's biggest company (by share value).
Traders who had short-sold VW shares were desperately trying to buy them back so they could close their deals and this, in conjunction with Porsche having bought shares, made Volkswagen worth a staggering $370 billion (shares peaked at €1,005 each). The largest firm in the world is (in reality) Exxon Mobil with a value of $343 billion.
Porsche {link} announced that it owned, or has options to buy, more than 74% of Volkswagen's shares whilst Lower Saxony controls 20% of the VW shares which left just over 5% available on the market. This scarcity was the factor that fuelled the huge increase in VW’s (paper) value. Traders who had short sold, betting that VW shares were going to fall in value were forced to buy shares at any price resulting in the massive hike in VW’s share price (their shares rose a stunning 146.6% on the 27th October 2008).
Volkswagen shares and company value have seen a return to normal, less astounding levels with shares now trading at around €650 instead of over €1000 as they were at points on Volkswagen’s Super Tuesday.