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Volkswagen close to finalising 2017 World Rally Car design

Volkswagen will finalise the specification of its Polo R for the World Rally Championship's 2017 rules revamp by the end of this month

The German firm has just concluded its latest round of testing with the new car and technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison said it was now in the final development phase.

"Everything has to be with the FIA for homologation for November 1," Demaison said.

"After that, we cannot change anything - the only thing that will change is if the FIA is not happy with something.

"The final validation process is the end of this month, the specification will be frozen at the start of September then we start building nine chassis - three for Monte, three for Sweden and three spares - at the start of December."

VW is currently testing chassis 35 and 36, while the 37th planned Polo R WRC will be Sebastien Ogier's entry car for the opening round of next year's championship.

The team's preparations for 2017 have been hindered by testing regulations that only allow 42 days of running because the car is an evolution of the current model and not a completely new machine.

"This is the reason why we are doing all of this year's pre-event tests with the 2017 car," said Demaison.

"For sure, this penalises us this year - we saw that a little bit in Poland.

"All the time, the drivers are coming to me and saying I want to test the 2016 car, but I say to them: 'No, I am a bastard and you know it!'

"I have to tell them this otherwise it will be so much more difficult for us next year.

"It's more important for us to focus on 2017.

"This year there aren't so many runners and at the moment what we have is just about enough, but next year it's going to be more [competitive] and we have to be ready."

This week's Autosport magazine - available in shops and online now - includes a detailed analysis of the chances to the VW Polo for next year's new-look WRC

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