The concept

The year is 2009. The world is reeling from the economic crash and the new car market very quickly moved towards favouring cars with smaller, more efficient engines. Petrol was out, diesel was in. Focus from manufacturers went towards making fuel-saving drivetrains and hypermiling specials like the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion were born out of this era, but a model that showed how an efficient powertrain could be placed into an interesting shell was also being readied. It was called the Volkswagen BlueSport.

To my young mind, the name made no sense because the show car was silver, but the name refers to Volkswagen’s BlueMotion technology being applied to a sports car, hence BlueSport. The manufacturer has a thing for giving models portmanteaus for names - take the Tiguan as an example, which is a combination of tiger and iguana. I am not making this up. Anyway, the BlueSport had the potential to do two things that had proved difficult in the past, namely making diesel road cars exciting and bringing a mid-engined, rear wheel drive road car to the masses. Yes, I am aware of the existence of the Porsche Boxster, MG F and TF, smart roadster and Toyota MR2, but in 2009 only one of those models remained in production.

The BlueSport, in true Volkswagen fashion, was presented as a near-production concept with functioning running gear and styling that looked modern, futuristic and familiar all at the same time. Even sitting on a stand at a motor show, it wasn’t impossible to imagine it sitting in a showroom next to a Golf, Phaeton or Touareg. The design clearly took a leaf out of the Golf Mark 6’s book with gently curved panels accentuated by a few defined lines. The prominent front wheel arch looked reminiscent of the Audi TT, while the shoulder line emerged from the doors to form the peak of the rear arches, similar to the R8. The silver show car had a contrasting orange soft top, wide rear lights and air outlets both on top of and part of the rear bumper that also housed two rectangular exhaust pipes.

Low-mounted air inlets would feed air to the 2.0 litre turbodiesel engine that generated 178 bhp and 350 nm (258 lb ft) and sent its output to the rear wheels via a six-speed twin-clutch auto. With a kerb weight of around 1,300 kg, the engine would shift the car from rest to 62 mph in 6.6 seconds and on to a top speed of 140 mph. Most impressively, perhaps, was the claimed fuel consumption of up to 65.7 miles per gallon.  

The interior featured two-piece seats with an instrument cluster borrowed from the Golf, dials for adjusting the temperature mounted high on the dash and a small infotainment screen sitting above the rotary gear selector. Looking at images both outside and in, the BlueSport looks like it should be about the same size as a TT, SLK or Z4 but in fact, it was smaller. Measuring in at just under 3.99 metres long, 1.75 m wide and 1.26 m tall, it was nearly identical to the NC-generation Mazda MX-5, the car that the BlueSport had firmly in its sights.

The promise

The show car was meant to be a one-off but the reaction to the concept was such that Volkswagen green-lit it for production. The car was given the development name of Mimo, a shortening of Mittelmotor (middle engine) and the code VW 215/1. Details started to be revealed including the targeted price range of £25,000 - £35,000. At least three engines would power the production BlueSport with the newly introduced 1.4 litre twin-charged TSI petrol, 2.0 litre TDI and the range topping 266 bhp 2.0 litre petrol as seen in the Golf and Scirocco R.

But it wasn’t just Volkswagen that would benefit from this new model, other marques in the group would be able to develop their own versions too. Audi was keen to develop a smaller sibling to the R8, and even SEAT were set to make their own version which would have realised the vision of a two-seater from Spain that the 2001 Tango concept never got to do…but that’s a story for another time.