Volvo in FIA WTCC

Polestar Cyan Racing will enter the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in 2016 with two Volvo S60 Polestar race cars as start of a multiyear programme.

“The championship enables us to further develop our technology and utilise development from the racing circuits directly to our products for performance oriented Volvo customers,” said Niels Möller, COO of Polestar, the Volvo Cars Performance Brand.

The announcement comes 30 years after Volvo Cars claimed the 1985 European Touring Car Championship title with the iconic Volvo 240 Turbo. Fast-forward to 2016 and Polestar Cyan Racing will carry the legacy to a new challenge, by taking on the world title with the brand new Volvo S60 Polestar TC1 race car.

Volvo Cars New Zealand general manager Stephen Kenchington says, “This is great news for Volvo globally and in particular for us in Australasia, as it vindicates our participation in motorsport via the Australian V8 Supercars. Competing in motorsport is a fantastic testing and proving ground for our engineers both in terms of performance and safety.”

Cyan Racing is the official motorsport partner to Polestar, the Volvo Cars Performance Brand, a cooperation started in 1996 in the Swedish Touring Car Championship. Following an evaluation season in the 2011 WTCC and two seasons in the Australian V8 Supercars, 2016 marks the start of the Polestar Cyan Racing’s first multi-year programme in a world championship.

The 240 Turbo dominated the racing circuits in New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Germany, Portugal and Sweden during the mid-eighties. Volvo had proved the strength of their concept with a downsized four-cylinder turbo charged engine against the might of the likes of BMW, Rover and Jaguar, all using six, eight and 12-cylinder engines.