V60 Polestar drives circles around forerunners
The cult of Volvo has a new wagon. We compared it to two older V70 Rs
Say “Volvo station wagon” and most people think safety, staid upright practicality, dogs in the back, family outings and … boredom. Unbeknownst to most, there is a lunatic fringe of enthusiasts who get all hot and bothered when musing on the classic Swedish box with a wheel at each corner. Huh?
Turns out Volvo has a quite a history of performance wagons, going back to the 200 Series Turbo of 1981 and there’s been a slew of them since. As if to prove the point, Volvo campaigned a TWR-prepped 850 Wagon in the 1994 BTCC (British Touring Car Championship), which proved both nutty and brilliant: the wagon had better aero than the sedan. It also allowed the team to put a big stuffed collie in the back for the odd parade lap.
Flash forward 23 years and I’m at the wheel of Volvo’s latest cubist Q-ship — the 2017 V60 Polestar — blasting along some sinuous roads. I’m in pursuit of the past: a pair of exceedingly rare Volvo V70 R 6MTs that are setting a pretty decent pace ahead. The silver specimen is a 2004 owned by Paul Novotny and the Safire Black 2006 is Will Jarvis’s pride and joy.
Between 2004 and 2007, about 160 six-speed manual V 70 R wag ons (2.5-litre turbo five-cylinder, with 300 horsepower and 295 poundfeet of torque) made it to Canada. The fact that I have two buddies who each own one of these unicorns is fairly amazing. They both happen to be professional bass players too, which seems a perfect fit. Bass players are quirky, a bit understated and ultra cool (at least, we like to think so), and we need vehicles that can haul around big upright basses, speaker cabinets and the like.
Paul and Will took their V 70 R obsessions one step further by upping the ante with RICA Stage 2 tuning (adding 46–50 hp and 64–67 lb-ft of torque), Eurosport three-inch high-flow exhaust, among other mods. These cars may be more than a decade old, but British designer Peter Horbury’s lines remain timeless and alluring.
Does this Rebel Blue 2017 V60 Polestar have what it takes to show the pumped-up elder statesmen a thing or two? With fewer than 200 of them coming to Canada (that includes both sedans and wagons), our $69,000 Polestar also boasts exclusivity. Volvo’s Polestar skunk works has engineered some real bona fides into the V60. It’s far more than a chip and badge job.
This may be an aging chassis, but the Polestar is chewing up these roads with glee. It’s smaller than the V 70s, the steering is marvellously direct and there is not a millimetre of slack in the chassis. With rear-bias Borg-Warner all-wheel drive and (externally) adjustable Öhlins shocks at each corner, the V60 immediately wraps itself around you and inspires confidence. The sixpiston Brembo brakes feel as if they could stop a freight train. Frankly, I’m amazed at how good the Polestar is. You expect this level of mechanical harmony and focus from a Porsche, but a Volvo? The ride is plenty stiff, though.
The real fun for us today comes from switching between old and new. Jarvis jumps into the driver’s seat of the Polestar and I ride shotgun. I give him a rundown: Last year this car had a 3.0-L six-cylinder turbo, but for 2017 it’s running with Volvo’s 2.0-L twin-charged modular four. A supercharger provides boost up to about 4,000 rpm, and from there a turbocharger takes over; it makes 367 hp at 6,000 rpm and 347 lb-ft of torque from 3,100 rpm. Tap the shift lever to the left for Sport, which opens up the exhaust, sharpens the eightspeed automatic transmission and produces more cool supercharger whine and whaps on upshifts.
Jarvis’s grin says it all. He’s never driven a car with shift paddles, so this proves to be an eye-opening experience. The little four-cylinder rasps and launches us forward, and the eight-speed transmission shifts with alacrity, although it should be noted this transmission is a beat behind the ZF unit (Jaguar, Maserati, BMW) when it comes to paddle response. Still, it’s the rapid cog-swapping that impresses both Novotny and Jarvis. That and the V60’s slot-car handling.
Now it’s my turn to drive Jarvis’s V70 R. These bigger wagons are all grand touring to the Polestar’s apex-strafing mojo. Even with their adaptive dampers set in the stiffest Advanced mode, the Rs glide over the road where the Polestar jitters and jives. Of course, the Polestar will leave its ancestors for dead in turns and corner exits, but straight-line speed is almost a wash. And driving a big wagon with a six-speed shifter is just so cool. One thing that hasn’t changed: spectacularly comfortable and supportive front seats.
Only a handful of Canadians will get to own the very specialized 2017 V60 Polestar. It’s like no other performance car on the market, and it surely counts as another fascinating love letter from Volvo to the wagon cognoscenti.
So how deep does the V70 R devotion go for these brothers in arms? This is Jarvis’s second R; his first was totalled in a rear-ender. While between cars, Novotny spotted the black six-speed R at Volvo of Toronto, he immediately alerted Jarvis and fate took it from there.
Novotny’s story is equally obsessive … er, heartwarming. When his V70 R suffered catastrophic engine failure a couple of years back, he elected to order (at considerable expense) a brand new mill from Sweden just so he could keep his beloved on the road. Oh, and he also made his own Swedish flag badge that parks next to the R. Lunatic fringe, remember?