Volvo’s S60 WTCC Racer Is A Swedish Tie Fighter With Four Wheels
By Paulo Acoba
Good news if you’re a fan of WTCC as the 2016 season sees new entrant Volvo into the mix with Polestar.
So far the World Touring Car Championship has been dominated by the likes of Citroen, Chevrolet and Honda. But for 2016 Polestar announced earlier this week (Oct. 13, 2015) that they’re back in the mix with two Volvo S60 Polestar race cars as a start of a multi-year program. It’s no coincidence that they planned this announcement just a mere 30 years after they won the 1985 European Touring Car Championship title with a Volvo 240 Turbo. It’s called the S60 Polestar TC1, and in its unpainted matte black livery, it looks absolutely sinister.
More or less based off of the Volvo S60 sedan that’s available at your local Volvo dealership, Polestar went ahead and adopted the rules and regulations that govern FIA WTCC to produce the prototype racer that you see before you. The S60 TC1 packs a 400 horsepower 4-cylinder turbo engine based on Volvo’s Drive-E engine family.
"”To use the Volvo engine as base and not go for the available generic WTCC race engine for our car was a no-brainer. Volvo engines are suitable for racing purposes in terms of power, technology and durability, as we have proven previously in the STCC, V8 Supercars and WTCC. The Drive-E engine is a perfect example with its low friction technology and exotic materials. We have been able to utilise a lot of development work from earlier racing programmes as well as road car development and we are keen to get going against the best in the 2016 WTCC,” said Mattias Evensson, head of engine development at Cyan Racing."
Volvo plans to use this platform in numerous years to come and we couldn’t be more excited. If you haven’t seen a WTCC race for yourself, it would behoove you to search around the internet and find yourself a race to watch. Head on over to FIAWTCC.com to check out the full calendar of races still left in 2016.
Next: Sabine Shmitz To Make Her WTCC Debut At Nurburgring