All of us need a shot of adrenaline every now and then. The market for premium hatchbacks is currently in that drained out stage, when picking out a niche that is emerging will be like that much needed boost.

But the last few weeks have seen manufacturers picking from their existing portfolio of cars and just slapping-on new stickers and spoilers in an attempt at creating new variants. The game has focused on offering buyers more value and features for the same price in a market that has been sliding.

Volkswagen has instead gone a step further and attempted to woo buyers with a serious upgrade. What we are talking about is the new Polo GT TSI. The nomenclature is very indicative of what the bonnet hides, which is basically a turbo-charged, direct injection petrol engine. What the name is also very indicative of is the fact that VW is hoping to deliver a hot-hatch in the Polo.

Hot enough?

This is not the first time that VW has attempted to bring a Hot-Hatch to the market. It tried earlier with the Polo 1.6L and unfortunately didn’t find too many takers.

Obviously Indian buyers are very demanding of performance in every department including fuel efficiency and that was clearly an issue with the 1.6L. This time with the Polo GT TSI, VW has a different story to tell.

How about a hot-hatch that features a powerful, turbo-charged, 4-cylinder engine and delivers more mileage than the similarly sized current 3-cylinder petrol engine? You won’t be right if you are already mumbling that it would be a compromise.

The engine itself is the four-cylinder 1.2-litre TSI engine, which is the smaller cousin of the 1.4L TSI in the Jetta. To make the offer meatier, VW engineers have paired this engine with the famous 7-speed DSG gearbox in the Polo GT TSI.

The 1,197cc engine features direct injection and is turbocharged, so a bit of fireworks in the cylinders is expected. In terms of sheer extra power the engine doesn’t disappoint.

There is a wholesome 30 PS of extra grunt available compared to the 3-cylinder 1.2L. And at 105 PS of peak power this 1.2L TSI engine is only 17 PS less powerful than the Jetta’s 1.4L TSI.

The Polo GT TSI’s engine is tuned to be a responsible performer. So, it three-point agenda is boosting mileage and reducing emissions, in addition to improving performance. So, while the power delivery is meant to be linear, it is all loaded below the 5,000 rpm mark. Not surprisingly too, the torque available is also packed into the low and mid-range. The engine rpm-meter shows the redline start at 6,000 rpm going all the way to the 8,000 mark. But the gearbox doesn’t let the needle stray beyond the 6,000 rpm mark.

Performance

During the test drive of the Polo GT TSI, the two points that immediately strike you is the amount of power that’s available and about how quickly it is delivered. There is just a hint of lag, but even before you can fully perceive its presence, the turbo is spooling up and the engine responds in double quick time. The acceleration is not mind-blowing, but certainly eye-opening.

Peak torque of 175 Nm is available from a low 1,500 rpm and stays on till 4,100 rpm. Both power and torque taper off quickly after the 5,200 rpm mark, so the best band to keep the engine going and have some juice left is the 2,000 to 4,000 rpm band. But really pulling this engine together and harnessing the horses is the 7-speed direct-shift gearbox.

This dual clutch gearbox of VW is a gem. Essentially built around the dual-sequential principle where one clutch works the odd-gears and a second one engages the even gears, this direct-shift gearbox surprises with the speed at which it shifts up.

So, while one clutch is engaged, the other is on standby to engage the next gear and the shift time is said to be barely 10 milliseconds.

The shift speed is evident when you operate it in triptronic mode. It also came in very handy during a few very tight overtake manoeuvres executed on purpose during our test drive.

The shift is so quick that even though the gearbox selected the next higher gear midway through the overtake manoeuvre, there was still no loss in power delivery. And that is because the quick shift barely led to any drop in engine rpm levels. In contrast, in a manual gearbox, operating the clutch and shifting up could lead to a drop of between 1,000 to 2,000 rpms and there will be a consequent loss in power available.

In Sport mode, the Polo GT TSI’s powertrain becomes a bit more agile, with the gearbox staying in gear longer (by about 800 rpm) all the way to 6,000 rpm, both in triptronic mode and in fully auto sport mode. The gearbox shifts up though and doesn’t let you stay in the chosen gear while hitting a rev-limiter.

Differentiators

Externally, there is nothing fresh in terms of design to distinguish the new Polo GT TSI from the current variants. There is the GT badging in the bonnet grille, the blingy GT TSI sticker on the C-pillar and the chrome GT TSI badge at the bottom of the hatch door. In fact, the only differentiator is the conspicuous absence of the Volkswagen and the Polo badges.

Either Volkswagens have become so common on the road that VW officials have decided that they don’t need to announce the badge anymore or the plan is to keep the GT TSI exclusively identifiable as just that.

Inside the cabin of the new Polo GT TSI, the minimal change theme continues, while there are a few differentiators. The dual tone Dark Grey- Light Grey interior colour theme in the cabin has been retained. But the seats are now clad in darker colours and with firmer upholstery. To boost the sporty imagery of the car, the seats also get contrast white stitching and slightly better bolstering on the sides. To give you the feel of driving a high performance car, there is also the drilled aluminium inserts for the brake and accelerator pedals.

The chrome-lipped air-conditioner vents look familiar too, but the air-con system itself has apparently been replaced for improved performance. The test drive was in Goa, but the summer had clearly set in already and the air-con surely proved its credentials during the drive. Of course, the other change is the automatic gearbox’s shift lever instead of the manual shift stick in the current 1.2-L Polo.

The lever with the polished aluminium base is neatly integrated into the GT TSI’s centre console. The regular gear shift positions (P, R, N, D) apart, there is a sports mode with an option to operate it in triptronic manual mode (+/-). The Polo GT TSI is not offered with steering mounted paddle shifters though.

Ride quality

The suspension of the new Polo GT TSI has been tuned with a bias towards ensuring a comfortable ride on the average Indian city road. The suspension soaks up and the spring and damper settings seem very close to the revised setting in the current Polo variants, though we are told that the GT TSI was tweaked for improved ride dynamics. The suspension does tend to stiffen up at high speeds, just like the power steering does too. The steering is direct and quite precise, though a bit more feel would have been welcome.

The new Polo GT TSI runs on the same 185/ 60 R15 tyres that the current Polo variants sport. We are sure some of these choices would have been made based on the need to ensure that it offers more mileage. The cabin is well insulated and engine noise and tyre noise are contained till you putting it through hard acceleration at high speeds. There was quite a bit of wind noise in our test mule while it was being driven past the 140 kmph mark. But we were told that it might be due to a door alignment issue.

Bottomline

The new Polo GT TSI has been launched at an ex-showroom (Delhi) price of Rs 7.99 lakh. It will finally be a hot hatch that you can buy for more than one reason, and with much less guilt.

muralidhar.s@thehindu.co.in

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