A 500bhp, Polestar-developed version of the Volvo S60 will make production, insiders have revealed. The new model, developed by the team behind Volvo’s Swedish Touring Car Championship entry, was spied in Sweden for the first time last week and is said to be close to a market launch.
Insiders have given no details away other than the BMW M3-eclipsing power output. It is unlikely Volvo would have stretched its six-cylinder engine to make such a figure, so power is expected to come from a turbocharged version of the 4.4-litre Yamaha V8 found in the XC90 (and the Noble M600).
A Haldex all-wheel drive system is also likely to feature, along with a pair of clever differentials taken from the C30 Polestar concept.
The spy pictures mask Polestar’s bodywork changes, but these are likely to include a more aggressive front end with additional engine cooling, plus wider sills and a diffuser at the rear. The spy pics do show the new, larger alloy wheels.
Polestar offers performance upgrades for various Volvo models, but it has not created a full-blown Volvo production car before. The Polestar C30, which used a 400bhp 2.5-litre, five-pot engine, was never given the green light, despite positive feedback.
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Mmm.... sounds to Me like
Mmm.... sounds to Me like Volvo do not really understand the whole thing about BMW's M3!
Based on this headline, they seem to think its all about headline grabbing power figures .
Mercedes make the exact same error with their AMG black series - They give it massive amounts of horse power and torque and end up with a car that's a bit of a joke because most of the power is completely unusable because the chassis cannot cope with it.
The secret with BMW and the M3 is that they get the right balance between the chassis' capabilities and the power output. In this way, all of the power is usable and none is wasted.
Volvo: Anyone can shoe horn a 500 BHP V8 into a car (Americans have been doing it for decades!), and you can go boody fast in a sraight line, but without a decent, World class chassis underneath it that can fully use the power, it ain't gonna be an M3 killer!
And lets be honest here, pretty much all of the "hot" Volvo's in the past have been fast in a straight line, but they weren't up to M3 standards when the going got a bit twisty!
Doesn't Koenigsegg use this
Doesn't Koenigsegg use this engine? If so, cmon Volvo! You know you want to.... 1200BHP S60 Anyone? That would beat an M5
People seem to also forget
People seem to also forget that the last Focus ST/RS models that everyone raved about, had Volvo engines, Volvo had the same engine in its S40/V50 and it hardly got noticed, they are also usinf Fords 2.0 ecoboost engine, but without raising any fuss.
As for those having a dig at the Asian origins.
Yamaha has built engines for other manufacturers' vehicles beginning with the development and production of the Toyota 2000GT (1967) with the Toyota Motor Corporation. In 1984, executives of the Yamaha Motor Corporation signed a contract with the Ford Motor Company to develop, produce, and supply compact 60° 3.0 Liter DOHC V6 engines for transverse application for the 1989–'95 Ford Taurus SHO. From 1993 to 1995, the SHO engine was produced in 3.0 and 3.2 Liter versions. Yamaha jointly designed the 3.4 Liter DOHC V-8 engine with Ford for the 1996–'99 SHO. The Volvo XC90 uses a larger version of the same engine. Yamaha also co-developed the 1.7 sigma SE engine used in the Ford Puma. Yamaha also built Formula Oneracing engines from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, with little on-track success. In 1991, Yamaha developed its F1 engined supercar called the OX99-11 where two drivers sit in tandem in front of the engine, but the project was cancelled due to the world recession and lack of interest.
Yamaha also tunes engines for other manufacturers, Toyota being one of them. Yamaha logos are, for instance, found on the Toyota S engines as well as the 2ZZ-GE used by Toyota, Pontiac, and Lotus.
Yamaha developed a prototype for a two-seater sports car with help of Albrecht Goertz. While the Yamaha/Nissan partnership never progressed beyond the prototype stage, Toyota took up the design and released the Toyota 2000GT.
Citytiger wrote:People seem
Indeed. The ignorance and narrow mindedness on this forum astounds me sometimes.
Also, for those people labelling Volvo as a 'Chinese car manufacturer'; how silly can they get. Only recently the Chinese government turned down plans for them to build a plant in China because they regarded them as a 'foreign auto maker'. The only thing Chinese about Volvo is the shareholders. The management and everything else is European.
crazy jap engine
quality alternatives to the kraut mobliles are always welcome. If yamaha fiddle with the sound (a la lfa) then its going to be teh awesomeness