THE honour of delivering the surprise punch on Paris Motor Show opening day was a close run thing between the likes of Fiat, Lamborghini, Audi and Kia but German giant Volkswagen stole the show with a car called XL Sport.
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While that name might well conjure images of a wonderfully cheap Korean car from the mid-1990s Volkswagen’s stunning sports coupe, should it ever go into production, will be anything but cheap and only cheerful when it is scything its way along any testing roads it might encounter.
Volkswagen calls XL Sport a ‘‘race car’’ and while that might feature in future corporate plans it actually presents as a sort of scaled-down supercar, right down to its scissor doors and mid-mounted rear engine.
By the way, even the engine is something surprisingly different, the car’s creators walking past every power plant in VW’s impressive arsenal and visiting motorcycle maker Ducati – itself part of the greater Volkswagen Group – to grab the liquid-cooled V-twin from the Panigale Superleggera.
Coming in at 1199cc, the fuel-injected unit has been tuned to deliver around 150kilowatts at a stratospheric 11,000rpm and, mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch semi-automatic transmission, propels the lightweight to a 270km/h top speed after jumping from 0-100km/h in an impressive 5.7seconds.
Volkswagen used the XL1 eco-car, regarded as the world’s most fuel-efficient car (it has an official average fuel consumption figure of 0.9 litres/100km) as the base for XL Sport. It follows the design of the basic design of the XL1 but proportion changes give it a longer wheelbase, significantly wider mudguards with taller, wider wheels and tyres giving it a wider, lower and impressively menacing stance.
It is road-ready though with a fully trimmed interior, sports seats and a modest boot cavity in the tail, protected from the engine’s heat by a substantial bulkhead that also stiffens the rear of the car.
Still in a performance vein but with far more relevance for Australian buyers were two production VWs that will soon become part of our model line up, the Polo GTI and Golf all-wheel-drive Alltrack.
The fourth generation Polo GTI is the halo car for the new Polo range released in Australia just a few weeks ago but this time around ditches the 132 kilowatt, 250 Newton metre 1.4-litre turbo engine for a new 1.8-litre turbo unit delivering 141 kilowatts of power and 320Newton metres of torque.
In pure performance terms it promises 0-100km/h acceleration in 6.7 seconds and a 236km/h top speed.
In something of a Polo GTI first, the new car arrives with a manual 6-speed gearbox as an alternative to the seven-speed dual-clutch semi-automatic.
A feature of this latest generation car will be an optional Sport Select suspension system with electronically adjustable dampers.
Expect the usual Polo GTI trim trappings as well which means red ‘‘GTI’’ insignia, side sills and rear spoiler while on the inside a sports steering wheel, instrument cluster and seats follow the interior design of the bigger Golf GTI.
Golf Alltrack adds another dimension to VW’s most popular model and gives the station wagon variant car a distinctive off-road appearance to go with the 4Motion all-wheel drive system and the extra (by 20mm) ground clearance.
Alltrack will be available with three engine choices: a new 1.8-litre petrol with 132kilowatts, a 1.6-litre, 81-kilowatt turbo-diesel and a 150-kilowatt, 2.0-litre turbo-diesel, the most powerful Golf engine so far.
