Volvo S60 Polestar To Debut At The Gothenburg City Race [teaser video]

Polestar presents Volvo S60 Polestar at the TTA Gothenburg City Race
Polestar is to present a performance concept road-car based on the Volvo S60 platform during the Gothenburg City Arena race on June 16th.
Moving on from the legendary Volvo C30 Polestar, a new chapter in Polestar’s 16 year cooperation with Volvo has started. Volvo Polestar Racing has entered four Volvo S60s for the 2012 season in the new Swedish racing series TTA – Racing Elite League. In parallel with the race-car development, a street-version of the S60 has also been developed. The official launch of the car, named Volvo S60 Polestar, will take place June 16th at the third race round of the TTA series held at Polestar’s home track in downtown Gothenburg, Sweden.
“The performance concept road-car is a spinoff of our work evaluating and developing the S60 for racing.” says Polestar Marketing Director Hans Bååth.
When the Volvo C30 Polestar was presented in 2010 it gained a massive global interest. Polestar was flooded with requests from people interested in buying the car. The first Polestar concept-car was however not designed with production in mind and at the time Polestar was also in the midst of campaigning the Volvo C30 WTCC in the FIA World Touring Car Championship. The first S60 Polestar is built for one of the most eager bidders for the C30 Polestar.
“Whether there will be more cars built is an open question. First of all we want to get feedback on this first prototype.” Bååth continues.
When Volvo in 2011 decided to race with the new S60 model, Polestar started an intense research and evaluation-program to collect and compile vehicle data from the S60 platform. The final decision on what racing class to enter was yet to be taken and Polestar needed to learn as much as possible about the S60′s built-in characteristics. Jan Andersson, responsible for complete vehicle development at Polestar explains:
“What we found was another very strong Volvo with great potential for motorsport applications and also an almost ideal platform for a road-going performance car. Volvo’s engineers are known around the world for their achievements in car- and traffic-safety. What is less widely understood is that strong and safe cars also make great platforms for motorsport and performance.”
Polestar has co-operated with Volvo since 1996 and has to date successfully raced five different Volvo models starting with the Volvo 850. Volvo bodies are strong and solid designs built to withstand extreme forces straight from the factory which make them ideal for building race cars. While in the S60 TTA car, almost every single part is designed and manufactured for racing purposes only, the S60 Polestar is to a great extent based on standard Volvo S60 T6 components. Christian Dahl, Managing Director of Polestar Racing:
“The car we present is yet another result of our close co-operation with Volvo were Polestar’s motorsport and performance experience is combined with Volvo’s in-depth knowledge about the car and its technology.”
Exact specifications of the car will be revealed at the official launch June 16th at Gothenburg City Arena.