Volkswagen Scirocco

Volkswagen has a tendency to name its cars after various types of prominent winds: Passat comes from the German word for trade wind, the Golf is named after the Gulf stream, Bora comes (of course) from Bora, Polo from the Polar Winds, Jetta from the Jet Stream, and todays Scirocco got its name thanks to the Italian word for the Sirocco wind.

In the past there have already been two iterations of the Scirocco model, but it took Volkswagen a very long time to release the third generation. After sales had stopped for the second generation model (depending on the location, somewhere around 1988 in the United States through to 1992 in Germany), the Volkswagen Corrado was seen as the replacement for the Scirocco, even though the Corrado had already been on sale for several years.

Skip forward nearly twenty years, when Volkswagen finally unveiled the new Scirocco at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, after having announced the car in June 2006 at the AutoEuropa assembly plant in Portugal. This particular model is heavily based on the Golf V, but has a completely different and more sporty look than its cousin.

Not only does it look the part, the top model also has the power to match: the Scirocco R has a 2.0 TSI engine which produces 265bhp at 6000rpm, so it is definitely no slouch. Aftermarket tuners have also taken quite a fancy to the Scirocco, as you can see in some of the pictures below.