Truth to be said, last year's S60 Polestar Performance Concept was a big success in terms of publicity for Volvo, with the one-off, 508-horsepower-strong sports sedan turning many heads towards the Swedish carmaker. To refresh your memory, said saloon was sold to an unnamed American collector for $300,000 or about €228,500 at today's exchange rates.
At the time, both Volvo and its official racing and performance partner Polestar had said that they were considering a limited production run of the car. To some extent, the two companies have made that happen.
We say "to some extent" because the limited production S60 Polestar does not have all the performance goods or the 508-horses of the concept, and for the time being, the 345hp (350PS) model will be offered exclusively for the Australian market. However, Volvo said that the new S60 Polestar was developed as a pilot project and that further markets "are under investigation" pending the response of the Australian launch.
"We received a fantastic response to our Volvo C30 and S60 Polestar concept cars, so we are very happy to now introduce our first production car to the Australian market," said Christian Dahl, Managing Director of Polestar. "This is an important step forward for Polestar, one that promises an exciting future."
What Volvo and Polestar did with the new car is take the standard S60 T6 R-Design and upgrade it with select parts from the S60 Polestar Performance Concept such as dampers from Öhlins, high capacity brakes, while also tweaking the car's aerodynamics with new kit including a front splitter, rear wing and diffuser.
Under the hood, the 3.0-liter six-cylinder turbo-charged T6 engine gains a bigger turbo, new intercooler, revised engine mapping and racing exhaust to lift output to 345hp (350PS / 257kW) and more than 500+Nm (369+lb-ft) of peak torque.
A tuned six-speed automatic gearbox transfers power to the road through an all-wheel drive system featuring modified software for more rear torque. Volvo says that the weight remains unchanged over the standard S60 T6 R-Design at 1,684 kg (4,176 pounds).
The S60 Polestar goes from 0 to 100km/h (62mph) in 4.9 seconds and has a limited top speed of 250km/h (155mph).
"The Volvo S60 Polestar is a car that we are truly proud of, our first step to a production car available to the customers," said Robert Dahlgren, Volvo Polestar Racing driver.
"We have taken the best bits of the standard S60 T6 and our S60 Polestar Concept Car, creating a vehicle that puts a smile on your face when you drive it over your favourite twisty road. At the same time, it is more than capable of everyday driving, too," he added.
