This is a story of a car that’s always begged for more thrust. The three-cylinder petrol and diesel engines that the Polo made its Indian debut with were (and are) the weak links and never offered the smoothness and performance expected from a premium hatch.
That’s changed now with these new four-cylinder engines that make more power than what was available, and they bump up the Polo’s power-to-weight ratio from ho-hum to pulse-quickening. Meet the VW Polo GT TSI and the GT TDI. They are similar – Siamese twin looks, near-identical power outputs, Rs 1,000 apart on price and only available in Highline spec. But they take different bang-for-your-buck paths. The GT TSI has a lot of tech – direct-injection, turbo-charging, ESP and a twin-clutch automatic – while the GT TDI has the more conventional approach of common-rail diesel engine and a manual gearbox.
What we’re doing then is driving them through our favourite roads to see exactly how much fun they can be. Continued..
Uday Singh
Dipan Sur
Glenn Noronha
