New car news

21 May 2010 - 00:00

Blue sky thinking

Think Volvos are a little on the soft side? Wish they were tougher? Say no-more; the Swedes have something you may be interested in.

Following on from the recent S60 debacle Volvo, looking for a slightly more positive news angle, has released the C30 Polestar concept, developed by the team behind Volvo’s successful foray into the Swedish Touring Car Championship.

Our mates in the UK just drove it, too - check out the pics here.

Effectively this Smurf-blue hot hatch can be seen as two things: one, as a teaser for the Touring Car team, and secondly, a taste of things to come in the wake of Volvo’s separation from Ford and subsequent purchase by Chinese behemoth Geely. Naturally we prefer what’s behind door number two.

Volvo has dived head first into its parts bin for the Polestar. The T5 turbo has been given a good going-over and now produces around 300kW - clocking a 0-100km/h time of 4.6 seconds. It's AWD, but with a rear-wheel bias. Yummo.

The interior uses more suede than Chuck Norris’ wardrobe, which, most disappointingly, simply looks like a re-skinned C30. Fortunately, this is something we can overlook because the race-spec clutch and re-jigged gear ratios are far more impressive than cow hides.

At least we can’t feel as scorned by the C30 as we do by the Focus RS500; unlike the Polestar’s rival which is available, just not here; the C30 is completely pie-in-the-sky at the moment. Our stance on cool European concept cars remains not unlike a Bond Villain – if we can’t have it, then no-one can.

Words: Kurt McGuiness