First Drive: Volkswagen Concept BlueSport at AutoFans www Auto Com

First Drive: Volkswagen Concept BlueSport

While the 2009 Detroit auto show was arguably the most miserable in living memory, it did have a few bright moments. Among the most notable was a delightful little mid-engined barchetta concept from Volkswagen – the Concept BlueSport Roadster. The only thing more delightful than recently driving it up and down a mountain pass on the German-Austrian border would be a decision by VW to put the diesel two-seater into production.

Such a green light might not be far away. Volkswagen bosses always intended the concept to be feasible pending a positive public reaction, which it received at Detroit and elsewhere. Volkswagen Group policy is currently to invest strongly in new product. Rivals who are suffering more than the German automaker in the recession are cutting back on their new-car pipelines.

That way when the world’s economies finally prosper again, VW will be in a better position to accelerate farther ahead. Launching the BlueSport in late 2011 — the planned date if it gets a ‘yes’ soon — should catch the upswing nicely.In the meantime, this one-off example feels remarkably ‘finished’ for a pure concept. It wasn’t just in the captivity of a test track, either. After a brief familiarization drive with the engineer in the passenger seat, we were given the nod to head off alone up the challenging public road. OK, so the car had a 62-mph speed limiter, but in the curves, that proved more than fast enough to give the car some loading, which it handled with enthusiasm.

The BlueSport feels properly mid-engined: Its lightly loaded nose turns in keenly (but not nervously), and when it hits a bump, the front suspension glides nicely over it. Meanwhile, the rear tires, bearing the mass of the engine, are always keyed deep into the asphalt. There’s even some realistic road feel from the steering. The ride is acceptable; the steel body feels rigid.

Performance was hobbled by the limiter, but you can feel the potential. The concept car is fitted with VW’s four-cylinder clean diesel engine. It kicks out 258 lb-ft of torque from 1750 rpm, so the six-speed DSG changes up early. It’s not noisy, but there is turbo lag at those revs.

The BlueSport is so named because Blue is VW-speak for green. BlueMotion is its trademark applied to the lowest-drinking and -emitting of VW’s vehicles at home in Germany. The concept uses the ultra-clean diesel engine from the Jetta. It’s a 2.0L four, with NOx trap, particulate filter, and stop/start. The turbo boost is wound up to give 180 horsepower. And the economy would be about 55 mpg, VW claims.

VW calculates 0-60 mph in 6.2 seconds with this drivetrain. But to be honest, a pure sports car needs a more goading engine. Not to worry: If it hits production, the roadster will likely be available with a range of powerplants, including the 2.0L turbocharged unit from the GTI. Even higher spec versions are being discussed. They will be scorchers.

On the concept, the front suspension and steering is from VW’s European subcompact, the Polo. The rear is adapted Rabbit/Golf. The floorpan uses sheetmetal from both those cars. The biggest new component is the engine cradle, but they know how to do that at low tooling cost and light weight with hydroformed aluminum.

For production, the engineers say they would use the group’s upcoming MQB chassis, floorpan, powertrain, and electronics matrix. This giant Lego set will form the basis for the group’s next generation of FWD cars, from the Audi A1 up to VW Passat.

The BlueSport is small and agile, but practical. Packaging engineers were in on the thing from the start. The cockpit is roomy in width because there’s no broad transmission tunnel. Legroom is abundant. Raise the nicely engineered, glass-screened manual roof and you find headroom in good supply. A deep front trunk is augmented by another out back.

It’s a great little looker, too. The nose smiles but avoids cuteness, the sides are given plenty of swoop by the defining wheel-arches, and the taillights taper to draw the eye outwards, exaggerating the low look. It’s the work of a team under Thomas Ingenlath at VW’s advance design studio in Potsdam. A production version would need very little watering-down.

Sadly, the interior would lose some of its concept flourishes: the lovely aluminum HVAC controls for a start. But interior quality and design is seldom a letdown on production VWs, so we’re not overly concerned.

The project team talks freely of engines. Not just the diesel, but a suite of direct-injection gas engines, at 1.2 (105HP), 1.4 (125 and 160HP) and 2.0L (210 and 265HP). They’re all there on VW’s parts shelves. No V-6s, because this car’s schtick is lightness and simplicity.

The ability to mix and max chassis and drivetrain components is why VW feels able to do a mid-engined car at a low price. And the car has to be both mid-engined and cheap, or it would clash with the more expensive front-engined Audi TT roadster.

The roadster’s positioning is refreshingly clear. It has the Mazda MX-5 in its sights, VW boss Ulrich Hackenberg told us explicitly at the unveiling. And it must match that car on price, too, he said. VW is also expecting German rivals soon — BMW’s Z4 has moved up-market to allow a Z2 underneath. And where BMW goes, Mercedes won’t be far behind with a sub-SLK.

So if VW is to get the jump, it had better get moving. We’ll be cheering it on.

[souce:MotorTrend]

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First Drive: Volkswagen Concept BlueSport

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at 8:31 am and is filed under Auto Review, Car Review, Volkswagen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.