Volvo Car Australia is back in the motorsport and high-performance road car arena with a turbocharged, all-wheel-drive version of the S60 sedan called the S60 Polestar. Fans of European motorsport will know Polestar is Volvo’s competition off-shoot, like AMG-Mercedes-Benz and BMW M.
Volvo is pulling no punches here, simultaneously announcing the S60 Polestar road car and its return to Australian motorsport as a full-on factory team with a V8 Supercar version of the S60 Polestar to be run by Melbourne-based Garry Rogers Motorsport in conjunction with Polestar’s Swedish-based works race team. Unlike the road car, in order to comply with V8 Supercar’s ‘Car Of The Future’ regulations, the racing version will employ a modified version of Volvo’s 4.4-litre V8 engine, mounted longitudinally and driving the rear wheels via the category’s standard transaxle arrangement. The Volvo S60’s bodywork will also require substantial re-working to fit the standard ‘Car Of The Future’ chassis dimensions – so Volvo’s return to local motorsport will see lots of technical development prior to the first race in 2014.
A return? Yep Kiwi superstar Robbie Francevic steered a turbocharged Volvo 240T to victory in the 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship in the Group A era and Jim Richards teamed with Rickard Rydell in a Volvo S40 to win the 1998 Bathurst 1000 in the World Touring Car Championship era.
However this time, Volvo has a legitimate road-going weapon to promote via its motorsport program – the S60 Polestar, priced from $109,950. And it’s globally significant – the first road car developed by Polestar.
“This is an important step forward by Polestar, one that promises an exciting future,” revealed Polestar chief Christian Dahl who flew into Brisbane for the launch, via Darwin for last weekend’s V8 Supercar championship race. “This is a driver’s car, bringing out the very best of the already competent Volvo S60 chassis with our experience and technology from motorsport. We have built a car that we, as car enthusiasts, want to drive.”
Under the bonnet, the Volvo S60 Polestar features a Polestar-modified version of the transverse-mounted turbocharged 3.0-litre, six-cylinder T6 petrol engine. Polestar fits a larger Borg Warner turbocharger, new intercooler, a 2.5-inch stainless full-flow sports exhaust with 3.5-inch tailpipes and its own proprietary engine management system.
The result is a 6500rpm red-line, maximum power of 257kW at 5700rpm and peak torque of more than 500Nm between 2800-4750rpm.
Drive is via a Polestar-modified six-speed automatic transmission with launch control and a Polestar tuned version of the Haldex all-wheel-drive (AWD) system. And the result is a top speed governed to 250km/h and zero to 100km/h in 4.9 seconds (just one tenth slower than the Porsche 911 Carrera, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, and Lexus IS F or two tenths slower than a BMW M3).
Volvo Polestar race driver Robert Dahlgren has been instrumental in testing the S60 Polestar’s chassis and drivetrain over thousands of kilometres covering a variety of roads in Europe. As well as 19-inch Polestar alloy wheels running Bridgestone Potenza RE 050A rubber, high performance Brembo brakes and adjustable dampers from racing specialist Öhlins, extensive re-tuning of the S60’s suspension left no stone unturned – spring rates are up by 80 per-cent, there’s a carbon-fibre front strut brace, new bushings and new rear toe arms.
For aerodynamic enhancement, Polestar was able to call on Volvo’s in-house Research and Development team and also use the Volvo Car Group wind tunnel. So they know the final developments of the front splitter, rear wing, bootlid spoiler and diffuser all do their jobs efficiently.
Inside, you’re left in no doubt this is a Polestar version of the Volvo S60 with Polestar-badged spots steering wheel and gear-lever (both leather-wrapped) and Polestar-badged front door sills. Sports seats in black leather are heated and offer electronic adjustment.
Infotainment is as you’d expect from a high-performance European sports sedan – a 10-speaker Dolby Pro Logic II system with a seven-inch colour screen which also does duty for the Volvo navigation System.
Similarly there’s the raft of Volvo driver aids including Active bending Lights (ABL), Adaptive Cruise Control with Full Auto Brake and Queue Assist, Lane Departure Warning, Pedestrian Detection, City Safety, Blind Spot Information System (BLIS), front/rear parking sensors and a reversing camera.
Volvo Car Australia has commissioned a production run of 50 S60 Polestars and says it is already holding some customer deposits. Other Volvo subsidiaries throughout the world are watching this ground-breaking vehicle with interest.
Car Showroom will be putting the Volvo S60 Polestar through our normal test routing shortly so check back for our driving impressions.
