Volkswagen’s Brazilian SP Coupe Turns 40 This Year [with Videos]

Volkswagen celebrates this year the 40th anniversary of the SP coupe, a car relatively unknown outside Brazil, its country of origin. Built by the company's Brazilian subsidiary in the '70s, the attractive coupe has an interesting story. In 1968 Rudolf Leiding, former CEO of Audi NSU, was appointed director of VW do Brasil, a job he accepted under one condition: to have the permission of building models adapted for the Brazilian market.

In the 1970's auto imports were blocked in South America's largest market, so Leiding thought about building a two-seat sports coupe that he believed would be successful.

Together with ‘Karmann-Ghia do Brasil’, which at the time was building the already dated Karmann Ghia coupe, Volkswagen Brazil started developing a new coupe, which had to use as many parts as possible from VW's local model range in order to keep costs low.

The team used the platform of the VW 1600, the Brazilian version of the Type 3 (forefather of the Passat). Engineers took the chassis, axles and the engine, while the steel body was developed from scratch. The SP also used the twin headlights of the 1600. The 54HP 1.6-liter engine that equipped the test prototype car proved itself inappropriate for a sports car so VW decided to offer this unit in a basic version called SP-1.

There were jokes that the SP name stood for "Sem Potência" (Portuguese for "without power"), but it actually came from São Paulo, Brazil's largest city. For the SP-2 version, however, engineers enlarged the displacement of the air-cooled flat-four engine to 1.7 liters. The unit thus developed 65 horsepower at 4,600 rpm and offered the SP-2 a top speed of 156 km/h (97 mph).

While the SP-1 sold in limited numbers, the SP-2 reached 10,000 units from June 1972 to February 1976, with the vast majority of them being sold in Brazil. The car was never officially sold in Europe, but one model found its way to Germany in 1971, when Rudolf Leiding was called back to VW headquarters to be installed as the company's CEO. He brought along an SP-2 as a gift to his wife. Today, European collectors own several SP-2 coupes and one can be seen in VW's museum. A few years ago, there was an attempt to revive the SP-2, but nothing has materialized so far.

By Dan Mihalascu

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Volkswagen Reveals Polo R WRC Racer with 300HP [Video]

After months of rumors and whispers, Volkswagen officially announced that it will enter a factory team to the World Rally Championship starting with the 2013 season. The announcement was made in Italy, where journalists had the chance to take a first look at the car VW will throw in the competition, the 300HP Polo R WRC, shown here as a prototype. Still under development, the rally-prepped supermini will be powered by a turbocharged, direct injection 1.6-liter TSI turbo engine and will use a four-wheel drive system. The four cylinder engine will develop around 300 horsepower and 350 Nm of torque (258 lb-ft) and will be fitted with a 33-millimeter air restrictor at high engine speeds, according to regulations. It will be paired to a sequential gearbox. The minimum dry weight of the car will be 1,200 kilograms (2,645 lbs).
As the pictures show, the Polo R WRC will have an aerodynamically-optimised body, with a massive wing at the back and extra-wide wheel-arches. Hopefully, we’ll see the “R” badge ending up on a road going version of the Polo as well.
The factory team will be run by Volkswagen Motorsport, the racing division that has won the past three Dakar rallies. Work on the vehicle concept design for the Polo R WRC started in February, while preparation of the first chassis is planned for later this year. The team will start an extensive testing program in 2012 and will familiarize with the WRC starting this year, as the VW group will enter Skoda cars at selected rally events at the end of the season.
Scroll down to watch the launch video of the Polo R WRC.

By Dan Mihalascu

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VIDEO: New VW Amarok Takes Down a 140 Tonne Chimney

Volkswagen marked the UK launch of its new Amarok truck with a rather unusual demonstration, using four pickups to demolish a gigantic, 67-meter (220 feet) tall steel chimney weighing in at around 140 tons. To complete a job that would normally have been done by a 40-ton excavator, structural engineers and demolition experts meticulously planned the task, undertaking a series of tests to see if the Amaroks had the necessary power and traction to do the job. The structure was prepared using a standard procedure of flame cutting a “shark’s mouth” at the base of the chimney in order to reduce its structural integrity while ensuring that it remained free standing. The cars were fitted with a “quick release” safety mechanism for the towing ropes to ensure the safety of the stunt drivers in case the structure fell in the wrong direction.
When everything was set, four standard Amarok pickups fitted with the standard 163HP 2.0-liter TDI engine simultaneously pulled four 200-meter long ropes attached to the top of the chimney and successfully brought the structure down to its knees – or so to speak. The VW Amarok officially launches in Britain on May 9 as a four-door doublecab, with a starting price of £21,343 ($35,300).
Scroll down to watch the VW Amarok making its powerful entry on the UK market.

By Dan Mihalascu

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Volkswagen’s Little Darth Vader Uses the Force on the European Passat

Unless you've been living in some oddball world where the internet doesn't exist - in which case, you wouldn’t be reading this anyway (…), you’ve undoubtedly seen Volkswagen’s much praised Super Bowl commercial starring a pint-sized Darth Vader who uses the Force when he discovers the new, North American-spec 2012 Passat. Having garnered close to 40 million views on Youtube on VW USA’s channel alone, the German company decided to bring the TV spot to Europe, and specifically to the UK to promote the seventh generation of the Passat that went on sale in the country in January. Not surprisingly, the only thing the advertising agency changed in the ad was the car. The campaign aired on UK television today and will run for six weeks.
“‘It’s a charming ad with great music and has the universal appeal of Star Wars,” said Volkswagen’s Communications Manager, Danny Hill. “It captures the imagination and ties in well with our message about the Passat’s clever technology. It was such a success in the States that it seemed a shame not to share it with a wider UK audience.”
We’ll remind you that Volkswagen separated the North American Passat from its European brethren with the presentation of a new model at the Detroit Show earlier this year. The U.S. Passat features a different –albeit very familiar- design and is built at the firm's brand new manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Across the pond, the mid-size sedan American buyers knew as the 2010/2011MY Passat received an extensive redesign for the 2012MY at last year’s Paris Motor Show.

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