Volkswagen Polo G40?

In the early to mid 90's VW made a Polo with a G40 supercharger.

Now these are as rare rocking horse manure I have only seen two I think and the last one I seen was in the 90's and it had a race with a Escort XR3i and from what I could see from the distance it well and truly thrashed the Ford.

Does anyone own one or has had one previously? If so could you tell me what they were like?

Comfortable, fast (I know this). economical?

Can't help much, but I think it was a 1.3 or 1.4 Supercharged engine. I did see one whip a Porsche 911 in the wet once - mind you the Porsche put too much power down and wheelspun for quite a distance, this was about 6 years or so ago.

Not very rare, loads on Club Polo and Edition 38. A chap has one at work, just been repainted and Jabba tuned to 170 bhp iirc. I think he is selling it at the moment.

Cracking cars but as with all G-Lader cars they need looking after.

One of my mates has 2, We are currently re-building one to a "showroom" condition. And his other one is running around the 150-170bhp mark.

Rapid pieces of kit. Just not my cup of tea, as they are a bit small.

be good fun as a second car, like my little mavis

Yeah, like Lmx said, they're not actually that rare if you know where to look, but they are a bit of a money-pit, especially if they're tuned.

Spec:

1.3 8v

Superchaged (G-Lader)

113bhp

Less than 850kg IIRC

Bwaaap!

I had one about eleven years ago!

Even standard it used to shift, suffered bad torque steer on the standard wheels, but none at all when I put some bigger BBSs on.

Very direct steering, rosejointed suspension too IIRC, although the suspension was still rather basic.

Very few sold in the UK as it was released in the early nineties when hot hatch insurance premiums went mental due to theiving oiks and everyone decided to buy nasty 4x4s instead. They were only brought in to order and it's very hard to find a nice original one today.

They are very small and light and I still have an example of it's little sister the GT to this day (although it has seen better days!!!).

I had one a few years back - was on an L-plate -- was one of the last cars to come to the UK -- it was a brilliant little motor - but the brakes left a little to be desired.

Suprised quite a few "Faster" vehicles when I had it.

Technical Specifications

Engine Type 4 cylinder with mechanical supercharger.

Capacity, ltrs/cc 1.3/1272

Max. output, bhp (DIN)/kw 113/83 at rpm 6000

Max. torque, lbs ft/Nm 111/150 at rpm 3600-4400

Compression ratio 8.0:1

Bore/stroke, mm 75/72

Induction Electronic, multi-point injection system (Digifant) with mechanical, G-spiral, supercharger and charge air intercooler.

Ignition Electronic controlled, mapped ignition.

Exhaust emission control Controlled, 3-way catalyst with lambda probe emission to US '83 standard.

Gearbox 5 speed

Battery, Amp/Ah 175/36

Alternator max Amps 65

Performance

Top speed, mph/Kph 122/196

Acceleration, secs 0-60 mph 8.1

Fuel Consumption

Official govt. figs, mpg/ltr per 100 km

Urban cycle 31.4/9.0

at constant 56 mph (90 km/h) 51.4/ 5.5

at constant 75 mph (120 km/h) 37.2/7.6

Fuel grade unleaded only 95 octane (RON) min

Dimensions

Length, ins/mm 146.7/3725

Width, ins/mm 62.6/1590

Height, ins/mm 52.2/1325

Wheelbase, ins/mm 91.9/2335

Track front, ins/mm 52.0/1320

Track rear, ins/mm 53.0/1346

Turning circle, ft/m 32.8/10

Front elbow width, ins/mm 51.9/1319

Max. luggage capacity cu. ft/ltrs (Ball measuring method)

without rear seat(s) folded 10.6/300

with rear seat(s) folded 37.8 1070

Fuel tank capacity, galls/ltrs 9.2/42

Running gear

Wheel size, type 5 1/2 J x 13, BBS alloy road wheels; steel spare wheel.

Tyre size 175/60R 13H

Brakes, front/rear Internally ventilated front discs/self adjusting rear drums.

Steering Rack and pinion, with steering damper.

Weights

Unladen weight, lbs/kgs 1830 / 830

Max. gross weight, lbs/kgs 2756 / 1250

Trailer load limit, lbs/kgs

braked 12% incline 1433 / 650

unbraked 904 / 410

Max tow bar load/roof loading, lbs (kgs) 110(50)/110(50)

Engine

Water cooled, four cylinder, transversely installed.

High compression and squish combustion. Blower-type supercharger.

Light Alloy, cross-flow cylinder head. Long-life spark plugs.

Valve gear

Single overhead camshaft; with maintenance-free hydraulic tappets.

Cooling

With electrically driven thermostatically controlled fan. Intercooler for charge air cooling.

Electrical System

12 Volt. Low-maintenance battery . Electronic, mapped ignition system.

Transmission

Front wheel drive via single plate clutch and all-syncromesh gearbox.

Five speed sports gearbox.

Chassis

Suspension struts at front, track-stable steering, anti-roll bar.

Torsion beam, trailing arm axle at rear.

Maintenance-free rack and pinion steering. Safety, collapsible, steering column.

Diagonally split, circuit braking system. Servo assisted braking. Non asbestos brake linings.

Internally ventilated disc brakes at front, with self-adjusting drums at rear.

Load sensitive brake pressure regulator.

i've driven one, masses more power than grip! but the supercharger needs frequent overhauls to replace the internal belts otherwise they tend to break and cause a lot of damage, as allready mentioned above, stay well away unless you can throw money at it

There's a guy on here who has one? DaveG40 I think? PM him and tell him you've just gone up against one in a Fabia vRS, and left it for dead! He'll respond nicely..

Lad at work has one with about 200 horses, it goes like stink. He's spent a fortune on it, but it's well sorted, coil overs, 4 pot brakes and a full cage. If you see a little green Polo knocking about Preston, you have been warned!!!!

hehe... 170bhp and 850kg... mint

brake upgrade is a must

There's a guy on here who has one? DaveG40 I think? PM him and tell him you've just gone up against one in a Fabia vRS, and left it for dead! He'll respond nicely..

Shame that would never happen unless someone spanks twice to 3 times the amount of cash at a furby compared to a G...

And why wouldn't i be nice?!

its nor fair, i compared the G40 to my mazda and it has 3bhp/tonne more :(

but mine has AWD so can actually put it all down

Fair comment but considering 125bhp+ from a chip / pulley for under

A guy i know had one and it was pretty quick for a small engined car but the supercharger was a weak point and they couldn't deliver the power he wanted so he fitted an eaton supercharger and stripped out every bit of weight he could, never experienced its power when finished but he regularly drag raced it at york and i beleive his times made it one of the quickest G40's in the country:thumbup:

Right,

I can tell you quite a bit.

Not that many were imported and only several hundred made. Many were written off due to them being a bit of a handful and only having a poxy brake servo. Watch out for ones that have been on a jig! Easily broken into just screwdriver beside the lock or pop the back screen. Low rent interior but a nifty looking spedo that went up to 160mph for a laugh. Apparently 130 (!!!) could be done but they really run out of steam over 90mph. Still 3L supra drivers and non turbod porches got a bit of a shock at lights! Only 1.3 but felt like a 2l! Very hard to find now especialyy ones that have not been mucked about with. Avoid anything with any engine mods. Even changing the air filter was risky because of the supercharger which was a bit unreliable....anyone who says otherwise is wrong!. Were released in rare dark (winsor) blue, white and Tornado red. I had a red one. They were made at the Seat factory and tended to hang around in compounds for a while cos they wern't that popular. the supercharged shopping car was expensive to run if something went wrong. However, mine was a daily driver. Mine was registered over a year after being built. It is still on the road as I sold it to a mate when my supercharger blew. They can cost up to 2 grand if you get VW to replace them and they make a dreadful mess of the engine when they do....and it will blow. Having you unit 'serviced' and the seals replaced does not mean it wont blow....I had mine done at BRM and it blew, just out of guarentee at 50mph.

Ok, so they don't stop very well and are dreadful in the wet through any corner. Also due to the torque going into small 13 BBS alloys you could get blown away at the lights by a punto in the wet. I used yokos and they were brilliant in the dry but OMG in the wet!

However, they are bloody fast from 0 to 60. I was timed at 6.5 secs, much faster than the figure of about 8 secs. I have never grinned so much in a car! The whirr of the charger and the accelaration were very addictive. If you worked within the limitations of the car and your own limits you could make very rapd progress. I went to watch them race at Oulton park. They raced agianst CRXs and Turbo 5s. Indeed, such was the pull of the car off the line they others had to have a rolling start to even things up.

If you don't mind the risky supercharger issues and can fancy a grat piece of VW automotive history buy one.....if you can find one.....but buy one in std form if it has been 'maxed' stay well away, even if it's just a remap of a shorter pully. Take the badges off for a real stealth Q car.

Writing all this makes me wanna drive it again!

M

Right,

I can tell you quite a bit.

Not that many were imported and only several hundred made. Many were written off due to them being a bit of a handful and only having a poxy brake servo. Watch out for ones that have been on a jig! Easily broken into just screwdriver beside the lock or pop the back screen. Low rent interior but a nifty looking spedo that went up to 160mph for a laugh. Apparently 130 (!!!) could be done but they really run out of steam over 90mph. Still 3L supra drivers and non turbod porches got a bit of a shock at lights! Only 1.3 but felt like a 2l! Very hard to find now especialyy ones that have not been mucked about with. Avoid anything with any engine mods. Even changing the air filter was risky because of the supercharger which was a bit unreliable....anyone who says otherwise is wrong!. Were released in rare dark (winsor) blue, white and Tornado red. I had a red one. They were made at the Seat factory and tended to hang around in compounds for a while cos they wern't that popular. the supercharged shopping car was expensive to run if something went wrong. However, mine was a daily driver. Mine was registered over a year after being built. It is still on the road as I sold it to a mate when my supercharger blew. They can cost up to 2 grand if you get VW to replace them and they make a dreadful mess of the engine when they do....and it will blow. Having you unit 'serviced' and the seals replaced does not mean it wont blow....I had mine done at BRM and it blew, just out of guarentee at 50mph.

Ok, so they don't stop very well and are dreadful in the wet through any corner. Also due to the torque going into small 13 BBS alloys you could get blown away at the lights by a punto in the wet. I used yokos and they were brilliant in the dry but OMG in the wet!

However, they are bloody fast from 0 to 60. I was timed at 6.5 secs, much faster than the figure of about 8 secs. I have never grinned so much in a car! The whirr of the charger and the accelaration were very addictive. If you worked within the limitations of the car and your own limits you could make very rapd progress. I went to watch them race at Oulton park. They raced agianst CRXs and Turbo 5s. Indeed, such was the pull of the car off the line they others had to have a rolling start to even things up.

If you don't mind the risky supercharger issues and can fancy a grat piece of VW automotive history buy one.....if you can find one.....but buy one in std form if it has been 'maxed' stay well away, even if it's just a remap of a shorter pully. Take the badges off for a real stealth Q car.

Writing all this makes me wanna drive it again!

M

I agree with a majority of this however the only thing that makes a g-lader unreliable is 2 things - hard acceleration from cold and the rev limiter - especially using a toothed belt / pulley setup that some owners use - if this kit is running and you hit the limiter - the seals are known to pop right out - even on std / smaller pulleys this is an issue...

The brakes are easily sorted using a larger Passat Master Cylinder for

Dave, You are well lucky to have one sitting downstairs!!!

I know that I loved driving mine. I remember driving back from Maghull early one summer morning, I had Haircut 100 blasting from the stereo (LOL), my sunroof open and both the windows down. Motoring bliss! One day I will ask Anthony if I can drive her again.

My charger, on reflection, did give me some warning something was up. Well I think it did. The noise it made appeared to change to a slightly higher pitch, afew weeks before it went. I wasn't certain about it at the time and still don't know but I swore I noticed something. Two weeks before it went I hammered the car on a bit of a mercy dash for a girlfriend (who is now my wife). I have never driven any car as hard as that and the engine took some cooling down. Actually the drive was great fun, but it probably didn't help matters. Two weeks later I was on the St Helens link road accelerating with a warm engine up to 50mph. I think I was in third gear (I think, it could have been second I suppose) and suddenly I heard what every G40 ownwer never wants to hear. I could have cried. I couldn't afford to risk it occuring again as it was my daily driver so I sold it to Anthony. Heartbreak. I have sat in it since, but the last time I ever drove it was when it blew.

I made no mods to my car but was aware that the servo could be improved but that is quite a good price. Would have done this and also had a look at the handling.....but never got round to it. Only the supercharger got at a recon. The Mini Cooper S option was not open to me at the time but it is nice to know this is now an option for owners. 150bhp is plain madness! LOL!

It's funny isn't it. All G40 owners revel in the looks on other drivers faces. I had only had the car a day when some baseball cap wearing clown tried to have me at the lights in his RS2000. Boy did he look unhappy as he eventually roared past me at about 90mph. However, the 'race' had been off the lights, a fact he knew. He must have hated me! There was another G40 in the St.Helens area, a white one. Never met the owner, it was std like mine. What was brilliant was when I went to oulton park and when I went back to my car parked next to it was another G40 again in white. The owner was a super bloke....Neil (I think....but I can't remember). We spent the day watching them race and going in and out of the compound where there were one or two G60 Golf Rallyes. When we returnred to our cars there were people admiring them and they spent some time asking us questions. It was great and we felt part of a special club. Didn't see Neil again, I should have kept in touch....often wonder if he still has his.

Sorry if I'm getting all sentimental on you here (wipes tear), but The G40 was part of some of the best most killer times of my life as a single man etc etc!

Wonder if the vRS I have on order will help me relive the past?

Nah how could it!

M

Im sure a furby VRs could be tuned nicely to outhandle and out torque the G - i'm not 100% on weight - but then who cares when you wont have any rattles and can have a drinks holder etc...! Much more refined - yet fun and practical with a skoda badge!

I have yet to lookup the kind of modifications and prices are to get some more go from the furby VRs and what can be expected...

I think as you say though there is a certain time to let one go - but it is such a hard decision and not one im willing to make just yet!

I have yet to compare my lil granny mobil to my friends octy vrs @ 240+ bhp - we are waiting for a strip day to see what happens

you won't be able to get the fabia vRS to corner like an 830Kg polo as the engine weighs that on its own....

i have an octavia 4x4 with 240-270bhp running on KW coilovers set very low and it corners no where near as well as my 1986 mazda 323 gtx that is completely standard and mine goes round bends a lot better than a standard fabia vRS.

you won't be able to get the fabia vRS to corner like an 830Kg polo as the engine weighs that on its own....

i have an octavia 4x4 with 240-270bhp running on KW coilovers set very low and it corners no where near as well as my 1986 mazda 323 gtx that is completely standard and mine goes round bends a lot better than a standard fabia vRS.

It also smokes more than a Fabia vRS :P

very true, sodding car :(