Like a couple of others on RR I write about cars for a living, and this occasionally means being invited somewhere cool.
On Thursday and Friday that meant a trip to Berlin to drive the new Volkswagen e-Golf, e-Up and Golf GTE - two 'leccy cars and a plug-in hybrid respectively. That's not very RR, but of more interest here is the lineup of Volkswagen Classic heritage vehicles they had on display.
If you like both old cars and experimental vehicles, it was a real treat. The lineup included a Polo Formel E, the 'Öko-Polo' or 'eco Polo', two generations of all-electric Golf City Stromer, and a Type 2 Elektro. Less talk, more pictures:
Sadly, all were off-limits as far as driving was concerned.
Was most fond of the MkII and MkIII City Stromers. Partly because each was effectively a perfectly-preserved example of the car, something you rarely see these days, but partly as I reckon each would make an excellent car to knock about town in - retro, but costing pennies to run.
MkIII is probably the more practical though - in order to fit the battery under the boot of the MkII, VW pushed the rear seat squab forward. Reduces legroom, but has the weird effect of giving the back seats a sort of gangsta-lean too, which I suspect wouldn't be overly comfortable for passengers!
Fascinating to see how they've moved on though. The three new cars I drove are very, very good examples of their type.
On Thursday and Friday that meant a trip to Berlin to drive the new Volkswagen e-Golf, e-Up and Golf GTE - two 'leccy cars and a plug-in hybrid respectively. That's not very RR, but of more interest here is the lineup of Volkswagen Classic heritage vehicles they had on display.
If you like both old cars and experimental vehicles, it was a real treat. The lineup included a Polo Formel E, the 'Öko-Polo' or 'eco Polo', two generations of all-electric Golf City Stromer, and a Type 2 Elektro. Less talk, more pictures:
Sadly, all were off-limits as far as driving was concerned.
Was most fond of the MkII and MkIII City Stromers. Partly because each was effectively a perfectly-preserved example of the car, something you rarely see these days, but partly as I reckon each would make an excellent car to knock about town in - retro, but costing pennies to run.
MkIII is probably the more practical though - in order to fit the battery under the boot of the MkII, VW pushed the rear seat squab forward. Reduces legroom, but has the weird effect of giving the back seats a sort of gangsta-lean too, which I suspect wouldn't be overly comfortable for passengers!
Fascinating to see how they've moved on though. The three new cars I drove are very, very good examples of their type.
