BloggerMag V2

Volvo has released the first picture of the S60-like car that it will field in Sweden’s new TTA Racing Elite League. The Swedish manufacturer will enter four cars into the series. They will be divided into two teams: the first is called Volvo Polestar Racing, and the second is Volvo Polestar Performance.

The track-bound car might look like an S60, but it goes without saying that precious few parts are interchangeable between the two models. The race car’s body is made entirely out of carbon fiber, and it sits on 18″ rims held on by a center nut.

The car is finished in a shade of blue that is typically associated with Polestar, the company’s racing arm, but the car will be painted in a team-specific color scheme before the season starts.

Power comes from a mid-mounted V6 engine that sends 420 ponies to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox that is controlled by shift paddles mounted behind the steering wheel. Interestingly enough, the V6 is linked to a Kinetic Energy Recovery hybrid system.

The Racing Elite Series season is scheduled to start on May 12th, 2012, in Karlskoga, Sweden. This deadline gives Volvo about a month and a half to put the finishing touches on the S60s.

“Polestar and TTA are conducting the final tests at the same time as we are working on the hybrid system, producing the carbon fibre body shells and calibrating the aerodynamics for all cars in our wind tunnel,” said Derek Crabb, Director of Volvo Motorsport.

When the S60s line up at the starting grid, they will go head to head against stiff competition from BMW and Citroën.