A few weeks before the official start of the 2018 South African circuit racing season, the new Engen Polo Cup racing car was unveiled in Port Elizabeth.
For the first time in the Engen Polo Cup’s 22 year history, the sixth generation Polo will be a GTI.
The highly competitive Engen Polo Cup Series is a one-make series where performance is kept equal to provide entertaining and close motor racing, teams are limited to chassis setup and tyre pressures and the engine power is also limited.
“We are very excited for the start of the 2018 racing season,” says Mike Rowe, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport. “I am sure that all the Engen Polo Cup competitors are raring to go.”
“The series, which has become known as the School of Champions, is a special one in South Africa and has crowned 16 different national champions. It also an immensely competitive one as only five people have managed to win it more than once,” added Rowe.
The official 2018 South African circuit racing season will kick off on March 24th, when a full field of more than 24 Polo drivers line up for the start of the 2018 Engen Polo Cup at Johannesburg’s Kyalami Race Track.
“New to the line-up of Volkswagen drivers is Raais Asmal, the winner of the 2017 Driver Search competition who will be joining team mate Jonathan Mogotsi, winner of the Rookie of the Year Award last year, in only his first year of racing,” said Rowe.
Competitors will be gunning for victory in eight rounds of the racing season and using a car based on the Polo GTI which will be launched in the second quarter of this year. The car has 2.0L Turbo Charged engine delivering 150KW and 340 NM Torque at 1 bar boost. Transmission is 6 speed manual MQ350 using the same as that of the Golf 7 GTI.
A new feature of the racing cars is Push to Pass, which will give the drivers an extra 20KW for 10 seconds. The Shock absorbers are locally produced SAX units which are sealed and controlled, while coil springs are specified and controlled front and rear. The car is shod with Dunlop semi slicks.
“Volkswagen Motorsport would like to thank Engen for their on-going sponsorship and commitment to what we see as South Africa’s most successful racing formula as well as the competitors who have the confidence in the series to make the change to the all-new car,” concluded Mike Rowe.
Alan Straton
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