Volvo may not be the first name you’d think of in racing, but it stands as a dominant force in European touring cars. Before stepping up to the World Touring Car Championship last year, Volvo and its partner Polestar Racing had come to dominate the Swedish Touring Car Championship. While that series has since expanded to all of Scandinavia, Volvo made other plans in switching over to the TTA Racing Elite League. And this is the car with which it will be contesting the new series.
Rather than field the same C30 touring car which Volvo and Polestar had fielded in the STCC and WTCC, the TTA racer revealed here is based (or at least looks like) the S60 sedan. Under that carbon fiber body sits a 420-horsepower V6 driving the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox and boosted by a similar KERS regenerative braking system as employed in Formula One.
The livery has yet to be finalized, so for now Polestar has decked the S60 TTA out in the same shade of baby blue that makes its other touring cars, that 450-horsepower all-wheel-drive C30 prototype and for that matter the Alonso-era Renault F1 cars so perplexingly devious. Click the image above to view in high resolution and follow the jump for the full press release.
First picture of the new Volvo S60 TTA
Volvo announced in August last year that they are going to switch to TTA – the Swedish Racing Elite League ahead of 2012 and today the first picture is released of the new racing car. "We have had a big pressure on us from many curious Volvo enthusiasts as it is a new championship and a new racing car. That is why we chosen to reveal the car now. Our final team colors are going to be shown later, but this is our S60 in TTA racing specification," said Alexander Murdzevski, Commercial Director of Volvo Motorsport Sweden.
Volvo is going to compete with four cars in the Racing Elite League with Polestar in two different teams, Volvo Polestar Racing and Volvo Polestar Performance. Three of four drivers are confirmed, Robert Dahlgren, Fredrik Ekblom and Thed Björk. The fourth driver has not yet been named.
"We can’t go in to that today. We are negotiating with three drivers, but we have other things that are more time pressing. 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.
With three months remaining to the TTA premiere on the 12th of May at Karlskoga, a new future awaits Swedish motorsport with sporting values, tight races and completely new regulations with new and exciting technology. Volvo has supported the idea from the start and has contracted their participation in the championship until 2015 at least.
"Motorsport must be cool, exciting and fair. We must fight our meanest competitors in our best selling models. We must be able to win by doing the best job and it should be easy for importers in the country to change racing car when changing model without the need of a heavy factory programme. We are really looking forward to the TTA – Racing Elite League 2012," said Anders Gustafsson, Managing Director of Volvo Cars Sweden.
Calendar – TTA Racing Elite League
12/05 – Karlskoga
02/06 – Anderstorp
16/06 – Gothenburg
07/07 – Falkenberg
18/08 – Karlskoga
01/09 – Anderstorp
15/09 – Tierp Arena
29/09 – Gothenburg
Technical specification – Volvo S60 TTA
Length: 470 mm
Width: 1970 mm
Height: 1205 mm
Wheelbase: 2750 mm
Track width: 1660 mm front/1630 mm
rear Suspension: Double wishbone, three-way dampers, etc.
Body: Carbon fibre Engine: V6 with hybrid system
Drive: RWD Power: 420 BHP
Gearbox: 6-speed sequential with paddles on steering wheel
Hybrid system: Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS)
Rear wing: 1600 mm width/300 mm depth
Brakes: Front: 4-piston calipers, 370 mm ventilated discs
Rear: 4-piston calipers, 360 mm ventilated discs
Rims: 18? with centre wheel nut
Tyres: Front: 260/660-18 Rear: 280/660-18
– By Noah Joseph
Feb 22nd 2012
