So whilst I lurk in the background, the car has mainly been kept in the garage for the last few years probably little over 1k miles in the last 5 years looking at the last MOT's.
Apart from the odd spirited drive and day out with the mrs as above the car didn't really get used.
I have now owned my red G40 turbo for over 10 years now, every year I deliberate with the idea of selling the polo and moving in a more 'modern' direction. Various cars have appealed to me as a reasonable replacement for the polo with a focus more toward trackdays. The reason for a track focused approach is because I have a company car and the polo is the 'toy' car so comfort, MPG quiet etc is/was never important. I seriously contemplated a clio 197 as out of the box it should stand head and shoulders above the polo handling wise but lack of straight-line speed was always a negative to having one and didn't fancy the hassle of shoe horning a megane 225 into one. Then there is the weight of one at 1200kg which is 50% heavier than the polo with only a marginal power increase on what I already have (just guessing as never RR'd it) which put me off as for some reason I always compare weights to the polo's.
In July, me, my brother and 2 of his mates booked an august bank holiday trackday weekend at Blyton Park, yes Saturday and Sunday of pure thrashing. The reason for booking the full weekend was Oulton was £250 for a Saturday (not long after lockdown ended so prices were stupid) and Blyton was 280 for both days.
In February of this year we went to Oulton Park for a track day (the polo didn't make it to this so i was purely a spectator/passenger). Que the mass spending by my brother and his mates on new suspension full geo set ups etc. In the meantime i spent £300 on Nankang AR-1 185/60/13 tyres, oil and filter change and did a bolt check on the polo and I was set.
The cars that went were the G40, my brother in his 385hp Honda civic type r EP3 turbo (which rinses the polo i might add with over double the power but 400kg heavier) if only the polo had another 80hp
. Fiesta Zetec S (2000 shape) with ST170 with ITB's circa 240hp (similar weight to the polo with more power so should be quicker but never met him on track for some reason to see how this compared to the polo
. Focus ST mk2 ramapped to 260hp again never met this on track but the lad can drive so saved me making my excuses afterwards so would be quicker than me I expect as i'm not the best driver on track.
During the weekend there were several very quick cars on track and a couple of worthy replacements for the polo, EK9 civic type r and DC5 integra type r which were driven rather tamely which was a disappointment as I couldn't really compare the polo to these. A Clio 197 cup was met on track to which i was severely disappointed with as the owner caught up with me afterward saying he was 'giving it everything' and couldn't get near. Needless to say I won't be getting a 197
a better driver in the 197 should have passed me.
A few scalps from the weekend were a time attack ST focus mk2 which took a good session to finally pass the polo. I could also keep pace with an E92 M3 and M135i which made the weekend even more enjoyable.
In truth a track day isn't really a good comparison for cars as the driving ability of each driver varies dramatically and I include myself in that purely for the fact that I don't drive the car nearly enough let alone on track to be comfortable in finding the cars limits etc. having said that I believed in the AR-1's far too much but thats what they were bought for and the best £300 I've spent on the car in regard to handling and once warmed up they were immense.
The polo didn't miss a beat all weekend, the Honda melted the scuttle tray which is mounted directly behind the turbo so had to do a track day bodge on that with reflective tape
, the Fiesta from memory also ran fault free apart from a slight misfire. The focus popped a CV boot which ended his Sunday early.
So in short I don't think I will parting with the polo just yet.
My GoPro packed up so didn't get any videos but got some pictures from Javelin:-