Volvo breaks the ‘Ring record and keeps mum for a year

Volvo’s Polestar Cyan Racing stayed back at the German racetrack after the 2016 FIA World Touring Car Championship round at the Green Hell to carry out a ‘secret test’. The purpose was to improve the performance of both road and motorsport cars by taking the performance of the Volvo S60 Polestar road car as far as possible. After a year now Volvo claims they broke the “then” record for the four-door production sedan.

The Polestar prepped S60 did a time of 7:51:11 seconds, claims the Swedish manufacturer. The record, since then, was broken in two months’ time by Porsche Panamera Turbo (7:38) and now currently is in the clutches of Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio which lapped the Nordschleife in 7:32 seconds. Volvo justifies the delay in letting the world know of their record time by saying, “Being Swedish, we didn't want to shout about the record, just learn from the experience. The learnings were so important, not only for road car development but also for the race team that we had to keep it secret for a full year. Revealing, now just days before we return for the 2017 WTCC race of Germany.”

However, even though the reveal comes a year late, the feat itself is not to be overlooked. The S60 Polestar is powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine pushing out 367bhp and 470Nm. The Alfa, on the other hand, comes with a biturbo 2.9-liter V6 engine sourced from Ferrari developing a whopping 505bhp. This indicates how impressive the S60 Polestar really is.

And as far as the benefit of ‘secret testing’ is concerned, the Polestar Cyan Volvo took the podium win at the German leg of the ongoing WTCC at the Nordschleife Nurburgring racetrack.