![]() ![]() Rumour had it that not even Audi’s top bosses were aware of it, and testing was moved to an obscure corner of Czechoslovakia to avoid spies, both from within the company and outside it. The ‘RS002’ – although it was never officially named – was a top-secret project. It resembled an aerodynamic house brick that had mated with a Porsche 911, but that unprepossessing exterior hid around 1000bhp, according to some people. This was another Group S special and what it lacked by way of looks it made up for in sheer effectiveness. The ECV (and subsequent ECV2: an evolved version) never competed but it remains a monument to what might have been. Power came from a revolutionary ‘Triflux’ twin-turbo engine, which was nonetheless incredibly hard to drive, with very little torque at low revs followed by a wall of power as those turbos kicked in. It was 20% lighter than the S4 it replaced and was the first rally car to use computer-aided design. Nonetheless, many manufacturers already had their cars prepared: first and foremost Lancia with the Delta ECV, which stood for Experimental Composite Vehicle. But of course Group S never came to fruition thanks to a series of fatal accidents in Group B, which convinced the sport’s rule-makers that a more powerful successor to those regulations might not be a terribly good idea. And that was Group S, which was intended to come in for the 1988 season – to respect a five-year period of rule stability that was promised with Group B. Enough said.īelieve it or not, there was actually something even faster and crazier than Group B that was originally planned to replace rallying’s most outlandish era. Marcus Grönholm was one of many drivers to test it subsequently and described it as the best rally car he had ever driven. The car, wearing a Red Bull zebra camouflage, was tested by Marcus Grönholm By that point the new Polo WRC was only a couple of months away from its competition debut in Monte-Carlo, so virtually complete.ĭominant in rallying for four years, Volkswagen’s success would have surely continued with the beefier 2017 Polo. ![]() Which made it all the more shocking when the company suddenly canned its WRC programme in November 2016 following the infamous emissions scandal. Volkswagen had been the dominant team (with Sébastien Ogier) since 2013, winning 43 of the 53 rallies it entered. The last Polo was built to the exciting new 2017 WRC regulations, when the cars sprouted bigger wings, brasher attitude and a lot more power. In the case of the 2017 Volkswagen Polo WRC, there’s no doubt about it. The real shame about a few of these unrallied cars is that they could have become world-beaters. ![]()
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