Polestar’s performance upgrades put the user in “pole” position.
Volvo Cars and its performance sub-brand Polestar have revealed the quickest cars they have ever made – the new 367bhp/470Nm Polestar S60 saloon and V60 wagon.
Both newcomers sprint from a standstill to 100km/h in 4.8 seconds and are limited to a top speed of 250km/h. They’re powered by a specially enhanced version of Volvo’s award-winning 4-cylinder Drive-E powertrain.
The performance engineers at Polestar have added a bigger turbo, a supercharger, new conrods, new camshafts, a larger air intake and a higher-capacity fuel pump to augment the T6 engine, and matched it with a BorgWarner four-wheel-drive system and a Polestar-optimised 8-speed Geartronic automatic transmission. Despite the increased performance, the powertrain’s fuel consumption and CO2 emission are 12.8km/L and 179g/km respectively.
Polestar has sportified the S60/V60 cockpit.
On top of the newly specified performance-optimised equipment, Polestar has reduced each car’s weight and optimised its weight distribution. The V60 Polestar is 24kg lighter over the front axle and 20kg lighter in total compared with the original estate. Other performance features include 20-inch lightweight alloy wheels, Polestar-calibrated electric power steering and slotted brake discs of 371mm diameter.
Both cars trace their heritage to the Volvo S60 Polestar TC1, the all-new FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) racecar from Polestar Cyan Racing. The new road cars use the same base chassis, engine and philosophy of the team behind the racecar’s development.
These two new models mark the globalisation of the Polestar brand. The first road-legal Polestar cars were launched in 2014 to limited markets. This year, Volvo is expanding the number of markets where a Polestar will be sold from 13 to 47 and doubling production volume from 750 units a year to 1500.
Read our review of the Volvo S60 T5.
Click here for our comparison of Volvo V40 T4, Audi A3 Sportback and BMW 116i.
