Volvo V40 Polestar To Rival Ford Focus RS

Polestar is to Volvo as AMG is to Mercedes – a company whose mission in life is to take ordinary production cars and turn them into performance oriented road rockets. While AMG has been bought by Mercedes and made part of the company, Polestar continues as a separate entity that continues to work closely with Volvo.

Polestar came to prominence recently when it took the C30 race car that won the 2009 Swedish Touring Car Championship, and turned it into a street legal road car. With 405 hp, all wheel drive, enormous Brembo brakes and a straight through exhaust all wrapped up in electric blue, the C30 Polestar certainly got noticed!

According to Auto Express, Polestar is applying its talents to the Volvo V40, and will use the all-new 315 horsepower turbo and supercharged four-cylinder engine, though there’s room to grow. The supercharged and turbocharged engine will produce as much as 400 horsepower from the next generation hybrid XC90. Couple that to a performance oriented chassis fitted with stiffer springs, upgraded dampers and bigger brakes and you end up with a car that is seriously quick and has the handling of a racer. 0 – 60 in under 6 seconds is certainly possible, and there’s always the potential for a hybrid version with even more power. The V40 Polestar will be Volvo’s answer to the upcoming Ford Focus RS, the Audi S3 and the BMW M135i.

At the moment, Volvo is analyzing the business case for the V40 Polestar. Part of that discussion will be whether or not to give the car all-wheel drive capability. The V40 Cross Country already has AWD, so the hardware is available, but price will be an important consideration. If the V40 Polestar is to be competitive with other models in the marketplace, all-wheel drive might be too costly an option to take on other hot hatchbacks.

One thing buyers will not get is the Rebel Blue exterior that Polestar is famous for. Production cars will only be available in red, black or silver. Red would be nice, but that Electric Blue is something else.

Source: Gas2