Where are all the Polo's?

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21st July 2015, 17:15
306 Cosworth

Where are all the Polo's?

Firstly, sorry if this has been covered in another thread before, I missed that.

So, where are the Polo's then? What are VW doing with them, and why haven't they sold any of the older cars to Privateers yet? I'm sure there's plenty of wealthy rallyists dying to get their hands on one. I know I want to buy one when I win the Euromillions :D

According to EWRC (http://www.ewrc-results.com/cars.php...gen-polo-r-wrc) There have been 28 Polo R WRCs built since 2012. So where are they, and are we ever likely to see any privateer cars?

And yes I know VW don't really need to sell them, but it'd be nice to see them being used elsewhere.
21st July 2015, 18:05
denkimi

Quote:

Originally Posted by 306 Cosworth

Firstly, sorry if this has been covered in another thread before, I missed that.

So, where are the Polo's then? What are VW doing with them, and why haven't they sold any of the older cars to Privateers yet? I'm sure there's plenty of wealthy rallyists dying to get their hands on one. I know I want to buy one when I win the Euromillions :D

According to EWRC (http://www.ewrc-results.com/cars.php...gen-polo-r-wrc) There have been 28 Polo R WRCs built since 2012. So where are they, and are we ever likely to see any privateer cars?

And yes I know VW don't really need to sell them, but it'd be nice to see them being used elsewhere.

you can ask the same question about the i20's, or the ds3's.

to me this seems one of the biggest problems the current wrc has. if you want to drive a modern wrc car as a privateer your only option is a fiesta.
21st July 2015, 18:12
Lundefaret

Rumor has it that Volkswagen was contemplating building RRC cars running a junior team (with used WRC cars) but this turned in to the Skoda Junior WRC team.
21st July 2015, 18:30
AL14

Quote:

Originally Posted by 306 Cosworth

And yes I know VW don't really need to sell them, but it'd be nice to see them being used elsewhere.

Why they don't need it? I mean, what's the problem with getting money even if you already have them?
My only explanation is that there are some "secret" in the cars they don't want others to discover. May it be? or is it stupid? :)
21st July 2015, 18:37
rallyfiend

As soon as you sell cars, you need to have the infrastructure to to deal with customers.

Car companies are not good at that, as it requires investment, people, inventory etc.

It's one of the problems with having so many manufacturers directly running their programmes rather than using the traditional garagistes (M-Sport, Prodrive, MSD etc).

So yes, they could get some money buy selling cars, but they'd need to spend lots of money to be able to provide the service to them.
21st July 2015, 19:22
AndyRAC

VW are in the WRC to win. End of. No other distractions are needed.
21st July 2015, 20:14
Mirek

Quote:

Originally Posted by AL14

Why they don't need it? I mean, what's the problem with getting money even if you already have them?
My only explanation is that there are some "secret" in the cars they don't want others to discover. May it be? or is it stupid? :)

I think You see too much conspiracy there. Of course they don't need to give everything out but I guess rallyfiend is correct. It doesn't end by selling the car. You need to have facility for rebuilding of components for customers, sufficient number of parts to deliver to customers, established service chain, available engineers to support the customers etc. etc.
21st July 2015, 21:31
Simmi

I guess it still begs the question - where are all the chassis? Do they have 15-20 just sat in a lock-up somewhere?
21st July 2015, 22:37
Martins Tolks

Aren't some of those used in WorldRX?
21st July 2015, 22:55
NoFear85

Quote:

Originally Posted by denkimi

you can ask the same question about the i20's, or the ds3's.

to me this seems one of the biggest problems the current wrc has. if you want to drive a modern wrc car as a privateer your only option is a fiesta.

2 i20 WRC are in Italy, "family" Fontana, or if you lika HMI-Hyundai Italia. and there are so many DS3 WRC, tho only one who dont have their cars for privaters is VW
22nd July 2015, 01:07
AL14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mirek

I think You see too much conspiracy there. Of course they don't need to give everything out but I guess rallyfiend is correct. It doesn't end by selling the car. You need to have facility for rebuilding of components for customers, sufficient number of parts to deliver to customers, established service chain, available engineers to support the customers etc. etc.

Ok ok, got it. I'm totally ignorant when it comes to these kind of subjects. Thanks for explaning.
27th July 2015, 10:27
306 Cosworth

Quote:

Originally Posted by rallyfiend

As soon as you sell cars, you need to have the infrastructure to to deal with customers.

Car companies are not good at that, as it requires investment, people, inventory etc.

It's one of the problems with having so many manufacturers directly running their programmes rather than using the traditional garagistes (M-Sport, Prodrive, MSD etc).

So yes, they could get some money buy selling cars, but they'd need to spend lots of money to be able to provide the service to them.

That's very true, but I'm sure VW are more than capable of setting up a 'customer base' without effecting the main WRC programme.
27th July 2015, 10:36
Mirek

Of course, but why shall they do that?
27th July 2015, 11:03
Rallyper

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mirek

Of course, but why shall they do that?

It´s a matter of sportsmanships behavour. Now they only playing masters keeping everything for themselves.
27th July 2015, 11:14
Simmi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rallyper

It´s a matter of sportsmanships behavour. Now they only playing masters keeping everything for themselves.

I'm not sure you can really call them out on sportsmanship grounds for not shelling out the money and increased infrastructure to create a customer programme. Especially when others have said, they have absolutely no need (or obligation) to do it as a fully factory supported outfit. Besides VAG can always just point to Skoda for their customer rallying programme.

I think the best we could hope for is a kind of satellite squad to appear which runs a couple of cars, but retains close links with the factory. If/when they actually start to get some serious competition they might consider it.
27th July 2015, 11:27
Rallyper

Open market is an honour in many places. Why do some choose to have a closed one in rallying?

It´s not a big issue, maybe only for the drivers good enough to handle such cars and also having money to buy them.
27th July 2015, 12:01
Barreis

They don't sell them 'cos they don't need to sell them...
27th July 2015, 12:06
Mirek

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rallyper

Open market is an honour in many places. Why do some choose to have a closed one in rallying?

It´s not a big issue, maybe only for the drivers good enough to handle such cars and also having money to buy them.

There's no real market for WRC cars as those are not allowed in FIA events except WRC. The amount of cars they can sell can't make it profitable for them. They would only loose huge money for creating the customer service from zero.
27th July 2015, 12:14
AL14

And probably they would barely kill mr Wilson. :)
27th July 2015, 13:13
Rallyper

Quote:

Originally Posted by AL14

And probably they would barely kill mr Wilson. :)

That might be closest to the truth.
27th July 2015, 23:17
Coach 2

Have allready all forgotten that one could not buy Group A parts or cars from Mitsubishi in the nineties.
28th July 2015, 01:18
Mirek

If I remember well they actually sold two factory cars to the customers. One was maybe for Andrea Aghini in Italy and the other went for Michal Gargulák to Czech republic. Anyway You have a good point. Two cars don't change the rule.

This is the Czech one, later it was for a long time used in hill climbs by David Komárek but the car was a lot modified from the original rally state.
http://www.ewrc.cz/images/2002/mcr/k...lakKopna02.jpg
28th July 2015, 07:11
TWRC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mirek

If I remember well they actually sold two factory cars to the customers. One was maybe for Andrea Aghini in Italy and the other went for Michal Gargulák to Czech republic. Anyway You have a good point. Two cars don't change the rule.

This is the Czech one, later it was for a long time used in hill climbs by David Komárek but the car was a lot modified from the original rally state.
http://www.ewrc.cz/images/2002/mcr/k...lakKopna02.jpg

If my infos are correct, those two cars were never factory cars, they were kits that you could put together yourself. The currently existing "ex-works" cars (de Koning, Walfridsson, etc.) are also interesting, as most of them have an old Evo V chassis rebuilt to Evo 6.5 spec. But this is off topic ;)
28th July 2015, 10:10
Mirek

Thanks. Do You have an explanation why those cars had British registration plates then? I don't remember the history but I thought Gargulák bought it as finished car not as a kit.
28th July 2015, 12:46
Coach 2

As I remember it, they (Mitsubishi) did not sell either cars or parts for the sake of taxes. If you only have a promotional company it is other taxes for the company than if one also produces parts and cars for sale.
It is possible that this also applies to VW.
28th July 2015, 18:45
TWRC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mirek

Thanks. Do You have an explanation why those cars had British registration plates then? I don't remember the history but I thought Gargulák bought it as finished car not as a kit.

Not sure about that, but maybe that car was built through Mellors Elliot Motorsport. That is only a guess, but Tagai's car also went there for a small rebuild in 2008, so they have some connection to those cars.
31st July 2015, 20:03
Ounin

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rallyper

It´s a matter of sportsmanships behavour. Now they only playing masters keeping everything for themselves.

What about Slowly Sideways, some millionaires on Eifel Rallye 2025?;)

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