Sad news, lovers of fast Volkswagens that were completely innocent in the whole Dieselgate scandal: no one will be able to run Volkswagen’s 2017 World Rally Championship Polo, per NBC Sports. Instead of letting the new Polo WRC just sit, I will generously offer to hoon it. Please?
Volkswagen shut down its obscenely successful WRC works team at the end of 2016, citing a need to shift its priorities (read: the few bucks and pocket lint left after the diesel mess hit the fan) over to future technologies and customer cars instead. Before that happened, they started to develop a 2017-spec Polo WRC car to compete in the series.
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Several privateers expressed interest in running the 2017 Polo WRC, however, given that the 2017 season is already in process, they would have needed a waiver in the homologation process to compete. The FIA refused to give Volkswagen that waiver, as Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets told NBC Sports:
Following customer enquiries, Volkswagen Motorsport asked the FIA for a waiver of the homologation of the 2017 Volkswagen Polo World Rally Car, with the purpose being to rent it out to private drivers and teams.
It now turns out that this is not possible under the current WRC regulations. We fully accept the result, but at the same time regret it in the interests of our customers. We would like to thank the FIA for the very constructive discussions.
There is some hope that they will be able to modify and race the car next year, however, there’s a lot of time between now and then.
Please let me offer—out of the goodness of my heart—to hoon these cars. Letting a car sit for that long isn’t good for it. Why do you think you see so many cars on Craigslist that “ran when parked?” If the FIA won’t let you race it, the very least you can do is let it loose to do some sweet donuts. We’re here to help, Volkswagen. Give us a call.
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