The half-century mark is a big milestone for a car nameplate, chiefly because most don’t make it that far. The branding gets changed, the segment dies off, the business case evaporates, any number of things can go wrong. The few that survive are typically cultural institutions. Mustang, 3 Series, Corolla, Civic. In that vein, the Volkswagen Polo is turning 50 this year, and rather than simply blowing out the candles and raiding the parts bins for a trim-only special edition, Volkswagen is giving the people what they really want: Sheer, glorious hooning in a high-production short film.
Obviously, a video like this will require some serious talent behind the wheel, so Volkswagen enlisted seven-time FIA World Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson. I’m convinced the Swede can drive just about anything, because his resume is legendary. Beyond World Rallycross, he’s a two-time Extreme E champion, a two-time Scandinavian Touring Car Championship champion, the fifth-place 2019 World Touring Car Cup season finisher while he was competing in WRC-2 and World Rallycross, the list goes on. What you need to know is that Kristoffersson has won an average of 1.6 championships a year from 2020 onward, and can really wheel a Polo.
It all starts out in the big one, the Polo World Rallycross car, in the Port of Gqeberha in South Africa. Volkswagen’s been building Polos on the Eastern Cape since 1996, and a big concrete surface with moveable obstacles seems like the perfect playground. After all, we’ve seen this recipe before, haven’t we?
After a blast around the port, Kristoffersson switches into the Polo WRC and takes it home, in a sense. Home to the Polo factory in Uitenhage, where the close-quarters stuff really ramps up. We’re talking donuts around a Polo on two wheels, playing dominos with quarter-panels, and yes, indoor skids.
Things get even crazier after Kristoffersson hops into the electric Polo RX1e, bringing a Red Bull stunt plane into the equation and making a racing EV look properly exciting on camera. A bit of squeaky-bum proximity to dirt and curbs never hurts, right? Finally, one last switch into a bog-standard Polo GTI on the actual production line, culminating in handbrake-parking next to a camouflaged ID. Polo prototype. Hey, this whole video exists to celebrate 50 years of the Polo, after all.
Part of what makes this film so exciting is that Volkswagen got the right people. Jon Richards, formerly of “Top Gear”, was in the director’s chair, and judging by his work, he certainly knows how to direct a car film. Then there’s the earnestness of how this feels like a tribute to Gymkhana. It’s no secret that the car world’s been different since we lost Ken Block in 2023, and Volkswagen’s latest promotional video really channels the spirit of the mega-viral tire destruction we all fell in love with.
It’s nice to know Volkswagen is still capable of having fun like this, as if the flame of the Drivers Wanted era survives somewhere in a labyrinth deep beneath Wolfsburg. From apologetic post-Dieselgate messaging to the overly-corporate images painted of the ID. Buzz, it felt like the face of the company had forgotten that cars should be exciting. This? This is exciting enough to put a SodaStream in your face-hole, absolutely frothing. Give it a watch and tell me you didn’t at least crack a grin.
Top graphic image: Volkswagen
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
At least this performance hatch from VW has three pedals, just that we can’t have it.
This, bring it to the States, you cowards.
Needs more G40.
Ok, it may just be a brief, camouflaged glimpse, but I need that ID.Polo yesterday. VW, please.
Too many cuts and the framing was way too close. Watch the Every Frame a Painting video on Jackie Chan fight scenes. The action in this Polo video is practically indecipherable.
Did they drive between the big container mover right after executing that sideways drift? I have no clue, since there is a cut from the drift to a shot driving through the wheels. Was it the same line or was this a shot from a different take or even a different day? There is no way to tell. The whole video is like that.
I want to like this video, but I don’t. It is poorly produced. The drivers are definitely skilled but the editor needs to calm down and the director needed to tell the camera crew to take 15 or 20 steps back so the viewer can tell what they are about to see before they see it.
https://vimeo.com/113439313?fl=pl&fe=sh
Good driver?! He blew right through at least two Stop signs!
I’m a simple man, I see harlequin, I click.
Clicked hoping it was VW suggesting they’d do it again, for real this time.
Now I have tears running down my cheeks thinking about Ken Block.