September 4, 2021
#440
Gentle reader,
This is part two in a series on Volvo racing cars. This article is about much more recent racers. If you have not read part one:
The Robb Collections: Racing Volvos. Yes They Do Race Them. In Many Guises and Types of Racing. PART ONE.
In part one, I wrote about the Australian race series called V8 Supercars. It has been going on for decades with quite a storied past. In 2013, two Volvo S60 racers were built using the 4.4 liter V8 engine built by Yamaha for use in S80 and XC90 Volvos. They raced from 2014 to the end of 2016.
For a couple more years Nissan and Mercedes continued in the series after Volvo dropped out. Here is a link to an article about what happened to the S60 race cars:
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE VOLVO V8 SUPERCARS? | V8 Sleuth
But why start with the end? OK, here is a video on YouTube about them coming to Australia:
Volvo and Polestar enters V8 Supercars for 2014 - YouTube It starts out with historical videos of the last time they had been raced there, then shows some European racing Volvos. At the end, a hint of the upcoming cars.
Here is a link to a video about Volvo's return to racing in Australia:
Volvo returns to racing in Australia - TouringCarTimes
Someone from Australia is referred to as an Aussie. A New Zealander is called a Kiwi after the flightless birds found only there. The best driver in the Volvos was Kiwi, Scott McLaughlin. Here is a link to an official Supercars video showing his exciting introduction to the fans at Adelaide in the first championship race of 2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NOZvWBp4Eo Prior to the official 2014 season, over one weekend, there were four non-championship races in support of the F1 races in Albert Park, of which Scotty's very first win in a Volvo occurred.
I love this shot of Scotty jumping the kerbs. That's how the English and their colonists spell curbs. Below is another view of him doing so. By the way, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, along with other smaller places are still part of Great Britain.
Like other forms of "road racing", V8 Supercars are based upon real cars. If you compare photos of street cars with the racers, it is obvious they go to great lengths to make the racers resemble the real cars.
All four doors open, as does the trunk. The lights, and windshield wiper works, they race in the rain and on street circuits as well as purpose built circuits. The longest race is 1000 kilometers, but most are much shorter with three or four over the weekend. But this is all now history.
I just found this tribute video made up from racing scenes of the two Volvo S60s:
As mentioned in part one, one of the most watched and followed, especially in Europe, races are "Touring Cars". Above is a C30 raced in the S2000 World Touring Cars Championship.
This is an S60 being raced in Touring Cars, but, I do not know which series.
"Volvo Green Racing distinguished themselves in the 2009 Swedish Touring Car Championship by winning both the driver and manufacturer's trophies. Not only that but the C30's were quickest in all qualifying sessions over the entire season, a first in the fourteen year history of the STCC. This was only the second season that Volvo campaigned the C30 in this ultra-competitive series. Polestar did a great job of preparing and fielding the two car team." Quote from IPDUSA
The C30, was, as we all know, the last of the C series of Volvo cars. That they did so well in the STCC, is a testament to Polestar's abilities to get the most out of Volvo cars for the street and the track.
For the World Touring Car Championship, American racing legend, Randy Pobst, was chosen to drive for Polestar Cyan Racing in the series.
These cars are front wheel drive and based upon street cars, unlike V8 Supercars which have spec tube chassis to which the car makers bodies are attached.
Obviously, there are aerodynamic changes to the bodies to accommodate the much wider wheels and tires as well as the full safely cage and strengthening tubing.
You might recall Randy's name in American automotive magazines since he is often called upon to fully test street cars on the track.
He also is famous for racing a Tesla Model S Plaid up Pike's Peak in Colorado and winning the electric car class.
This is a link to an article about the end of an era of Touring Cars racing, specifically this car:
This Volvo S60 Race Car Is the End of an Era
For 2012, there was a new type of racing series, called: TTA Elite Racing Series. It involved all of Scandinavia and featured cars that barely resembled street cars and were in fact, MID-engine, rear-wheel-drive. The engine and transaxle were mounted longitudinally behind a firewall where the rear seat and trunk would be.
Below are a series of photographs of the Polestar's factory entry. Be prepared to see a Volvo like you have never seen before:
Looking in through the opening for the left rear door, above.
On track, cars number twelve and thirteen.
Note the dual exhaust exiting through the rear bumper.
These images are from an article I found on these bizarre cars.
Look at the huge diffuser under the bumper to let out the air channeled underneath.
I cannot imagine many actual Volvo parts on these cars.
The doors come off easily to access the driver's compartment and engine compartment.
A later livery for the factory team cars.
Since the Volvo S60 V8 Supercars retired from racing at the end of the 2016 season, I have not been able to find any news about newer Volvos racing anywhere. Sigh.
Thank goodness for YouTube, though, one can enjoy watching Volvos in all kinds of racing series. That is except for 2015 and 2016 V8 Supercars. I did reach out to Supercars, asking them if they have and are planning to release on YouTube, those two seasons. So far, no response.
Kiwi Scotty McLaughlin, after accomplishing everything he set out to do in Supercars, winning the championship the last three years for Penske in Ford Mustangs, Penske sent him to the US to race one of his Indy cars. He has not done well, though. Yet.
Thank you SO much for taking the time to read my humble blog. I really enjoy researching and writing it. Feel free to comment below or on Facebook.
Scott
September 4, 2021
#440
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