Volkswagen Polo GTi concept news - Polo GTi lookalike? - 2009

Red, it seems, is the colour at this year’s Worthersee meet. Yesterday, we saw an lipsticked Q5 presented at the big Austrian GTI meet, and today VW has followed it up with a brace of crimson tuning jobs.

There’s a Halford-spec Golf GTI with red-rimmed alloys, tarty seats and absolutely no more power. More excitingly, VW is also showing off a Polo concept that, it says, ‘offers an initial impression of how a sport version of the new compact might look’. A Polo GTI concept, in other words.

It doesn’t half look like the Golf, does it? Those 18-inch wheels might be a bit much, but we’ll take the sports exhaust and lowered chassis, ta very much.

Unfortunately it’s not exactly… powerful. The Polo concept gets an 1.4-litre engine putting out a pitiful 85bhp, good for a 0-60mph time of around 12 seconds.

Come on, VW – this is a concept! What’s wrong with sticking a mental little turbo engine in there, just to whet our appetite? A mental little turbo engine putting out, say, 210bhp – because you’ll have to top that pesky 180bhp Ibiza Cupra – and promising Viggen-esque levels of torque steer. Even if you never build it, at least it’s something to get excited about.

Or what about a mid-engined Polo W12? Actually, that’s just daft. It’d never fit. In which case we’ll settle for a mid-engined Polo with the 6.0-litre V12 diesel from the Audi Q7. Fast and economical – what more could you want?