Volkswagen Vento to get a 1.8 litre turbocharged petrol engine

The Volkswagen Vento will get a 1.8 litre turbocharged TSI petrol engine but you can’t buy one. Well, that’s because Volkswagen is building a race-spec Vento, which will be used for customer racing programs. This is to comply with Federation of MotorSport Control in India (FMSCI) Indian Touring Car rules that prescribe engine capacity of no more than 2 litres, and a turbo inlet restrictor of 30 mm. The Vento 1.8 race car is expected to have outputs of about 180 Bhp, making it the most powerful version of the car ever built in India. The engine will use a 3MO sequential gearbox with a manual gearshift lever. The race-spec Volkswagen Vento will be driven by Karthik Tharani and Ishaan Dodhiwala in the 2018 National Car Championship season.

Volkswagen sells the regular Vento sedan in India with a lot less powerful engines. The petrol motors that Volkswagen offers on the Vento include the 1.6 litre naturally aspirated unit with 105 PS and 153 Nm, and a 1.2 litre turbocharged motor with 105 PS and 175 Nm. While the naturally aspirated petrol engine is offered with 5 speed manual and 6 speed torque converter automatic gearboxes, the turbocharged motor gets a 7 speed twin clutch automatic gearbox as standard. The Vento is also sold with a 1.5 litre turbocharged diesel engine with 110 PS-250 nm outputs. The diesel motor gets 5 speed manual and 7 speed twin clutch automatic gearbox options. Prices of the Vento start from Rs. 8.32 lakhs, ex-showroom Delhi.

The Vento sold in India competes with the likes of the Honda City and Maruti Ciaz. The car is sold as an elegant, well-built sedan that offers premium features and thrilling performance. Volkswagen also exports thousands of Vento sedans to countries around the world. The all-new Vento is expected to arrive in India by 2021. Until then, Volkswagen will continue to constantly refresh the current Vento by adding more features and stylistic changes to it. Enthusiasts in India will be hoping that a high-performance edition of the Vento with a 1.8 litre turbocharged petrol engine becomes a reality in the future.