BMW did it and Mercedes did too: the takeover of former in-house tuners into the company has become commonplace, at least with so-called premium providers, and so M or AMG are now flying under the brand sail. Since wanted Volvo do not stand back and after many years of cooperation took over Polestar first in motorsport and then when tuning series models last year. The first fruits of the new type of collaboration are the beefed-up mid-range models V60 (station wagon) and S60 (sedan). We chose the limousine.
On the engine side, in terms of power and torque, this makes no difference. We are talking about 367 hp, up to 470 Newton meters of torque, a standard track value of 4,7 seconds and a top speed of 250 km / h - just to name the most important key data. Oh yes, these values tickle the Polarstern engineers, as is now common practice at Volvo, from four cylinders and two liters of displacement. The basis is the so-called Drive-E unit T6, whose already not so low output was increased by 61 hp, the torque increased by 70 Newton meters.
Who cares: This was achieved by tuning good old school. A larger turbocharger is used, resulting in a larger air inlet, new connecting rods and sharper camshafts. The entire engine management system has been recalibrated, and there is also an active stainless steel exhaust system with an electrically controlled flap exhaust. We'll get to that in a moment. First of all, it should be noted that, as with the normal T6, an all-wheel drive is always included and also the usual eight-speed automatic, which, however, changes the gears noticeably more quickly.
And with it for driving fun: Thanks to the abundance of power, after all more horsepower under the hood than the new Audi S4, for example, the relatively high curb weight of 1.750 kilos is hardly noticeable. With a sonorous growl, the turbo and compressor charged engine reports to work and then performs it effortlessly and mercilessly through all speeds and gears. At higher speeds, the four-cylinder goes into a light sawing, which is never really uncomfortable. Now to the flap exhaust: In our opinion, these things are superfluous, an acoustic imposition and something for show-offs. They will soon be banned, and rightly so. As a good Swede, Volvo does not drive it too wild with this thing, the noise emissions are just kept within reasonable limits.
If you choose the "Sport" function, the S60 always keeps the selected gear when cornering, which is a great thing, especially if you want to conquer an Alpine pass - which we unfortunately did not do. On the other hand, the “Launch Control”, which enables a racing start from a standing start, is completely superfluous. We know something from Porsche or from tuned bourgeois vehicles. Also only for show-off and in no way particularly gentle on materials. Just to mention it: there is also a “Sport +” function and an eco function for your conscience. We can forget. Both should hardly be chosen in everyday life.
While the performance is always convincing anyway, this is less so for consumption. Instead of the promised just under 8, we actually consumed over 11 liters on average. And all this with a high proportion of the route being reserved. It's always the same game, especially with the relatively small engines: if you use the performance potential, the consumption goes up exorbitantly. If you don't, you don't actually need such a car. In practice, of course, the excess power always entices to push the foot a little deeper into the accelerator pedal. But the buyer of such a vehicle will take that into account.
Hopefully he also factored in the suspension set-up beforehand, so he made at least one extensive test drive. In any case, we were already surprised by the merciless hardness of the S20 Polestart, which has 60-inch rims and little tire rubber as standard. The fast Swede doesn't take prisoners in this regard, and is rather ruthless towards sensitive intervertebral discs. Here you can also tell that the vehicle was not designed for such performance when it was developed, after all, the S60 has been on the market for over six years. The tuner's scope to combine performance with comfort was obviously limited. New vehicles in this performance class can do that much better.
As a touring sedan, the S60 Polestar is only suitable to a limited extent in the rear seats, despite the generous space available. In addition, there is now the aging interior, with plastic not of the very first quality and the familiar awkward operation of all Volvo vehicles of that time. This changes with the next generation, which will not be long in coming and will then be given a similarly modern and high-quality interior as the larger sister model S90, which has just come onto the market.
Yes, and then there is the price. The Swedes make no patron and offer the S60 as a Polestar with all Pipapo. The list of surcharges remains super short, but the basic price soars to 68.000 euros. That is a few thousand more than even the similarly powerful, but basically poorly equipped German competition calls. Here, too, Volvo confidently drives the hard way. (Peter Eck / SP-X)