For those of us bored in the drought of no rally left after Rally China was cancelled from this year’s World Rally Championship schedule, Volkswagen has a peace offering. Their Polo WRC car was spotted testing in Portugal, and my stars, it’s loud and fast.
Rally fans did what rally fans do best—hide in the woods to wait for fast cars— and took videos of Jari-Matti Latvala and Marcus Grönholm whipping the snot out of a pair of heavily camouflaged 2017-spec Polo WRC cars.
2017's cars are going to be cool, with wider fender flares and more power. I love seeing these cars kick up huge dirt trails and jump over every bump in the road already.
This thing sounds insane when it launches and flies by. The amount of whooshing, chirping and other assorted engine and turbo noises is unbelievable. It sounds like a spaceship as it rockets up to speed. The cars were tested on both gravel and tarmac, and the camo turns to plaid as soon as the throttle pedal is pinned to the floor.
Bonus: a guy definitely gets splashed at 1:48 into this video. Unless it’s oppressively hot outside, stand in front of the water—not behind or beside it.
Hilariously, Volkswagen also worked Red Bull’s bull and several other sponsors’ logos into the black and white camo. Citroën worked their usual colors into their test car’s camo livery, so it’s only fitting that Volks/Bull brings back out the black and white bulls. Red Bull’s flashy black-and-white camo was one of the best looking liveries I’d seen on a Formula One car, and you know what? It works here, too. Keep it, VW.
At the end of the day, though, what matters is that this thing is ridiculously fast. It certainly looks the part! We’ll have to wait until next year to see how it lasts over an entire rally weekend up against other lightning quick rally cars, though. Is it 2017 yet?