It is a good day to be a Volvo fan, the long awaited S60/V60 Polestar is going into production. The first of these tuned Swedes left Volvo’s Torslanda factory and are headed to lucky customers across the world.
The cars themselves may not be thrilling to the average gearhead, but they should be. These cars are redesigned from the ground up by Volvo’s tuning partner Polestar. Think of them as the Swedish equivalent of BMW’s M Sport, right down to the racing experience. The result is that the Polestar ’60s feature motorsport modifications straight from Volvo’s touring car race program – and yes you can say “race” in the same sentence as “Volvo” without the world exploding.
The core of the modifications is the twin-scroll turbo T6 inline six-cylinder engine. In the Polestar edition, this puts out 350 horsepower and a whopping 369 pound-feet of torque, good for 0 to 60 in 4.7 seconds and a passing oomph of 50 to 75mph in the same 4.7 seconds. If my experience in the standard 300 hp T6 is any guide, this car may actually blow your socks off.
Even better though, are the suspension mods which are more than 80 percent stiffer than already performance geared S60 R-Design. Add in an all-wheel drive system that is grippy enough to tear skin, and brakes that wouldn’t be out of place on an Airbus A380, and the whole package is starting to look pretty impressive.
The bad news is that there will only be a total of 750 produced worldwide and only 120 of those – 80 V60 wagons and 40 S60 sedans – will be coming to the United States. And the ones that do make it here will feature a hefty price tag of between $50,000 and $60,000.
That is a lot considering what else is out there. But these Volvos aren’t just fast; they will be comfortable, practical, and more than a bit special – not to mention beautiful.
As a longtime Volvo fan I am pretty excited – I think I hid it pretty well ,though. Volvo and Polestar are excited, too. Henrik Fries the Polestar project manager said, “It was a truly proud moment to see the first Polestar blue cars on the production line together with the XCV70, S80 and other models. The cooperation with Volvo works really well and we are looking forward to an exciting future together.”
I am right there with you Henrik … now back to work!
