VW Motorsport unveil Ameo Cup car

This new one-make, race-spec Ameo packs a serious punch

THE VOLKSWAGEN GROUP may be cutting back on its factory motorsport operations all over the world, pulling out of WRC and WEC, but they made it pretty clear that they’re committed to building their customer racing programmes. VW Motorsport India have reinforced their commitment to growing Indian motorsport by investing heavily in developing a new race car for 2017 and beyond, based on a completely new platform that can and will be enhanced over the coming seasons.

Gone is the 1.4 TSI motor from the Polo and Vento Cup cars, the new Ameo Cup car gets the larger 1.8-litre TSI engine found in the Polo GTI. But the even bigger news is the all-new drivetrain. The DSG gearbox, a charecteristic of VW’s Cup cars right since the Polo TDI has been swapped out for a 3MO sixspeed sequential gearbox activated by paddle shifters and with a limited slip differential on the front axle. While more expensive, this motorsport-spec gearbox will be more reliable and will prove to be more economical over the course of a couple of seasons. A MoTeC engine management system has been installed to take care of issues like fuel problems that blighted many cars at the BIC rounds last year. The lightweight flywheel and clutch from Sachs Race Engineering are new as well. The 1.8 motor makes 202bhp which is an easy state of tune for a race engine, hinting that the next seasons will see a bump in power making the cars even faster. After all, this engine and transmission configuration will be carried over into future race cars even if the bodyshell is swapped for the next-gen Polo (or whatever the marketing team wants to push in coming years). In due course we could even see push-to-pass that was in development on the 1.4 TSI Vento.

Another major development is on the aerodynamic front. That massive wing on the back of the car will play a crucial role in keeping the car planted while it corners at speed. The Ameo platform has the shorter wheelbase of the Polo and that makes it more agile at the expense of the (longer wheelbase) Vento’s stability in high speed corners – the big wing takes care of the latter making it the best of both worlds. Allied to new MRF racing tyres, KW race suspension and bigger brakes the lap times have dropped by a whopping 4.6 seconds at the MMRT. The aerofoil is manually adjustable but it is still unclear whether each driver can set it up as desired or whether it will be regulated.

Entries for the 2017 Ameo Cup season have closed, the races will tentatively begin around June.

This engine and transmission configuration will be carried OVER IN FUTURE race cars