Volkswagen Polo GTI engines & performance

Straight-line performance is a poor measure of a hot hatchback’s appeal, but it does serve to illustrate just how far the Polo GTI has come. Its recorded 0-60mph time of 6.7sec is a mere 0.2sec adrift of the 242bhp Performance Pack-equipped Golf GTI we’ve previously tested, and by 100mph the deficit has grown only to a solitary second.

This despite the fact our dual-clutch car’s launch-control function never quite got to grips with the near-perfect conditions (if you’ll excuse the pun), allowing the front tyres to over-rotate a fraction too vigorously.

As smooth and responsive as that DSG ’box is, in a car such as this you really want a manual. Pity we’ll have to wait until the year’s end to get one

Simon Davis

Road tester

Claimed top speed is nigh on 150mph, and given how readily the Polo accelerated to 130mph along the steeply banked, outermost lane of Millbrook’s high-speed bowl, there’s little reason to doubt it.

Nobody could accuse the hottest Polo of lacking performance, then, and yet there’s a sense it could be even quicker – and without modifications to the engine. The gearing is curiously long (most likely to more easily achieve emissions targets), and while 236lb ft from a mere 1500rpm helps disguise the effects of that out on the road, more closely stacked cogs would make proceedings that much more excitable.

This being an everyday kind of performance car, fuel economy will matter to owners. In this regard, the Polo GTI’s touring economy of 46.8mpg is entirely respectable, and only a small increment shy of what we’ve experienced in the new Fiesta ST (yet to undergo a full road test).