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.

There was even talk of a fixed roof coupé version to come later down the line, along with a true entry-level pair of Porsches to sit below the Boxster and Cayman in the model range. Momentum picked up and the functioning show car was given to the press to allow them to get their first taste of the model that would come to market in 2012. The BlueSport was said to have wonderfully direct steering and the ability to squat and hug the tarmac when accelerating out of corners, thanks to the rearward weight distribution and the suspension setup, consisting of MacPherson struts at the front and a multi-link arrangement at the rear. It was described as feeling “properly mid-engined” by MotorTrend, “beautifully balanced” by CAR and said to have “awesome potential” according to Top Gear Magazine.

With the preliminary verdicts and near unanimous praise in, all we had to do was wait until 2012 for the production version to hit the roads and showrooms, but that promise of a production BlueSport would never come to fruition.

The demise.

In the three years that followed the successful showcasing of the BlueSport to the public and the confirmation of production, Volkswagen then managed to struggle to make a business case for it. With multiple brands taking on a chassis or base product, the cost and risk of developing a new product can be shared and that has been key to the success of the Volkswagen Group’s product strategy for decades now; the Volkswagen up! needed the Skoda CitiGo and the SEAT Mii in order for the programme as a whole to be viable. So when Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, board member for development, said that the VW Group “will have lots of convertibles in the future, a Golf convertible, Audi will have convertibles, but of a roadster…I’m working on it” the alarm bells on the project had already started to ring.

Dr Hackenberg said that around 50,000 - 60,000 BlueSports would need to be built for the project to be viable which would’ve been no problem if Audi and Porsche had remained on board. However, in 2012 Porsche unveiled the new 911-based Boxster and had changed their mind about having a new entry-level model with a lower price. As for Audi? They were concerned that there would be too much overlap between their version of the BlueSport - christened the R4 by the media - and their prized TT coupé and roadster.

We even got a glimpse of what the model could have looked like with four rings on its nose and a fixed roof above the cabin in the form of the fully electric Audi e-tron concept that was shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the same venue that hosted the BlueSport just a year prior.

Things went even quieter on the BlueSport front and with no pre-production prototypes being spotted, it was assumed that the project was dead. In 2014, it was confirmed to be so with the new head of development for Volkswagen, Heinz-Jakob Neusser stating that there were no intentions of reviving plans for a small sports car based on the BlueSport. It seems that the numbers didn’t add up in VW’s eyes and without Audi and Porsche onboard, the crucial 50,000 sales would not be attainable. Neusser did go on to announce an updated Phaeton, which ended production two years later.

What should have been.

It’s difficult to say “this car would’ve sold like hot cakes” with the knowledge that the combined mega-brain power of Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and SEAT officials thought the opposite, but I really do think that they missed a trick. As the 2000s became the 2010s and the Audi TT, BMW Z4 and Mercedes-Benz SLK matured in the market, there was clearly a gap for products to sit underneath them and open up the world of engaging, driver focussed cars without costing the earth. With the promise of frugal fuel consumption for the diesel model and the black pump being at the height of its popularity and relevance, it’s hard to see how the BlueSport wouldn’t have hit the ground running.

Some of the features of the BlueSport would make their way into production cars though, with the high-powered 2.0 litre turbodiesel becoming the powerplant for the new Golf GTD which offered near GTI levels of performance with increased fuel efficiency. Most amazingly, the MQB platform that the BlueSport was built on, would go on to underpin nearly every front engined compact model in the VW group portfolio - something that I find staggering given the mid-engined, rear-wheel drive layout of the roadster concept.

The BlueSport would have been a desirable, aspirational, usable and attainable car all in one - and who knows whether Volkswagen launching the car would have retrospectively prompted Audi and SEAT to re-enter the project? I find it hard to believe that a production BlueSport would’ve been anything other than a fabulous mix of driveability and usability, and possibly the starting gun for a mid-engined revolution for compact, affordable sports cars.

Adjusted for inflation, the £25,000 starting price would be £38,000 today, with the range toppers being around £53,000. That’s just £5,000 more than a well-specced Golf R. Regardless, it is unfortunate that the fabulously styled and right-sized model will leave us all wondering what should have been.