I've started using the Evo Magazine forum recently. One of the members was kind enough to look through his magazine collection and scan in some Polo G40 articles. I've uploaded them to image shack to share with Club Polo.

To sumarise the findings of the articles. The G40 has an excellent engine. The power and torque it provides makes it extremely potent in real world point-to-point driving. The rev happy nature and flat torque band (which appears low in the rev range) allow it to out class the Corrado G60 in straight line tests. Performance Car recorded a 0-60 time of 7.4 seconds for the G40 and 8.3 seconds for the G60. In gear acceleration times were also found to be lower in the G40, making it perfect car for relaxed over taking and effortless progress. Supercharging seems to get the thumbs up.

Whilst the chassis does its best to cope with the extra power it fails to impress the testers. It is out classed by rivals such as the 205 GTi and Renault Williams Clio which truely inspire. Much the same can be said for the brakes which all testers picked up on as being a weak point.

Interior quality is deemed to be a step behind more modern rivals but the seats are comfy and general fit and finish is satisfactory. Equipment levels are sparse.

The exterior is pleasing to the eye and is touted by one tester as being the best looking car in class...I'll agree with that point!

Overall it is tantalisingly close to being an excellent car and giant killer...it's just quite there...

Enjoy...

Performance Car Group Test (Polo G40, Renault Williams, Renault 5 GTT, Peugot 205 GTi):

Performance Car Group Test 01

Performance Car Group Test 02

Performance Car Group Test 03

Performance Car Group Test 04

Performance Car Group Test 05

Performance Car Group Test 06

Performance Car Group Test 07

Performance Car Group Test 08

Performance Car Group Test 09

Fast Lane Twin Test (Polo G40 vs. Corrado G60):

Fast Lane Twin Test 01

Fast Lane Twin Test 02

Fast Lane Twin Test 03

Fast Lane Twin Test 04

Fast Lane Twin Test 05

Performance Car Pre-release Test:

Performance Car 01

Performance Car 02

Performance Car 03

Performance Car 04

Autocar Test:

Autocar Test 01

Autocar Test 02

Autocar Test 03

Autocar Test 04

Edited 19 January, 200818 yr by Tav

they were a good read!

I wonder if any of the UK test cars are still on the road/owned by any body on here?

auto car review is by far the best in my opionion. i think the others were just too far set with the others and picked on stuff that was irrelevant....

£235 for foglamps!!

slightly suprising that the g40 rinsed the g60 on the straight acceleration tests up to 90mph! made me chuckle when they claimed the 205 interior didnt look dated. the interiors are one of the main things that set the polo apart from its rivals IMO as they are far nicer than your ave festa, nova or frog car from the same era

Awesome, nice one. Glad to see the G40 was top dog on fuel consumption.

Edited 19 January, 200818 yr by randombadger69

good read g40 price as tested £11,996 - yowza

Nice one! I've always looked out for polo articles in old magazines, but never found any :(

"Hair-raising handling" :)

Cheers for that Tav! Interesting stuff

Interesting read, thanks tav

I'm not suprised the G40 took the G60 what with a crossflow head compared to the G60's counterflow head. I've heard that the G40 was de-tuned so it didn't outshine it's bigger brother!!

I've heard that the G40 was de-tuned so it didn't outshine it's bigger brother!!

Very easy to believe that. Look at how easy it is to extract power from G40s over G60s. Even with a half litre capacity difference and a 50% bigger supercharger, ultimate power seems to be about the same!

I love reading old car reviews

I wonder if any of the UK test cars are still on the road/owned by any body on here?

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1660/1bsn2.jpg - this picture here, soon as i saw the reg plate i thought thats my mates car. its sitting on his drive in pieces.