Polestar takes its high-performance experimental car to Goodwood

Article content

Race on Sunday, sell on Monday? Polestar, the performance-electrified-vehicle division of Volvo, has taken an experimental version of its four-door Polestar 2 to the Goodwood Festival of Speed to tackle the hill climb – and we’re wondering if one day it’ll be available in showrooms as well.

Article content

The Polestar 2, which retails in Canada starting at $69,900 , uses two electric motors for all-wheel drive, and makes 408 horsepower. But the experimental car takes those motors and tunes them up to 476 horsepower.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Polestar takes its high-performance experimental car to Goodwood Back to video

The car may be experimental, but as the company’s limited-edition, high-performance Polestar 1 plug-in hybrid glides off into the sunset, it’s not hard to imagine this model morphing into a production car for enthusiasts, especially since “1 and 2” are the only vehicles the spin-off company has produced so far – and next up on the list is Polestar 3, an electric SUV.

Not only that, but the Goodwood car isn’t the company’s only high-performance project. Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar, said he’s been driving another experimental Polestar 2, nicknamed “The Beast,” around the company’s grounds in Gothenburg, Sweden, and it was the inspiration for the hill-climb car.

In addition to more power, the experimental car also gets a wider track and lower ride height from the production model. It gets performance brakes from the Polestar 1, along with that car’s 12-inch wheels and Pirelli P Zero tires, which required widening the wheel arches so they’d fit.

Article content

The suspension is also retuned, with springs that are 80 per cent stiffer at the front and 40 per cent at the rear. The car received Öhlins three-way performance dampers, a custom-made rear strut bar, and a carbon-fibre front strut bar from Polestar Engineered, originally designed for the Volvo S60.

“I challenged the design and engineering teams to play with Polestar 2 and come up with something that makes a strong statement for Goodwood,” Ingenlath said. “We want to flex our muscles and explore opportunities.”