Young Kiwi Scott McLaughlin has been making waves in V8 Supercars and his dice with Jamie Whincup in Race 2 of the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide yesterday has helped put his new car, the Volvo S60 Polestar on the map.
The final lap of Race 2 saw a balls to the wall fight between McLaughlin and Whincup. And just when you thought it was all over a rookie mistake handed the sport a massive boost going into a new season.
Make sure you tune in for McLaughlin’s post-race interview.
Volvo is expected to be the next manufacturer to join the new era of V8 Supercars. Motoring.com.au reports Garry Rogers Motorsport will announce a deal to race with Volvo on 17 June.
That date also happens to be the day Volvo will launch the S60 Polestar in Australia. When the S60 Polestar concept was revealed last year it had a mighty 508hp on tap from its turbocharged six cylinder engine, but the production model has to make do with only 350hp.
Of course, we don’t need to let the fact the S60 is a six-pot worry anyone in the latest iteration of V8 Supercars by numbers that is the Con of the Future era.
For their part Volvo is officially denying the deal, but we expect there’s enough meat to this rumour that 17 June will be the day.
GRM has been a long-time campaigner in V8 Supercars and won the Bathurst 1000 in 2000, with Jason Bargwanna and Garth Tander at the wheel.
[Source: motoring.com.au | Thanks to Stu for the tip]
Sometimes you just shouldn’t get out of bed in the morning. That was probably the conclusion Thomas Broberg, Senior Safety Advisor at Volvo Cars, came to after a demonstration featuring the new S60 saloon went a little bit pear shaped.
Assembled media and onlookers were supposed to see how the svelte looking S60 could avoid a rear end accident thanks to its collision warning system. As you can see from the image above things didn’t quite go to plan. Fortunately there was only a crash test dummy at the wheel of the car at the time of the 35km/h impact.
You can see a video of the incident below and listen to a red-faced Broberg explain what went wrong. If you can speak Swedish you might even understand him. (As of Monday 10 May the video has been removed from YouTube, an animated GIF below shows what happened). Apparently a battery failed causing the system to remain inactive. Volvo say had a human been at the wheel of the car they would have realised the system failure and had time to take evasive action.
[via World Car Fans]
UPDATE 10 May: It would seem Volvo are keen on removing footage of this oops crash from the interwebz. For now, a new video can be seen at the end of this article sourced from a Swedish news report, which starts off explaining how the system should work.
It’s a Volvo Jim, but not as we know it. The swooping lines, dramatic curves and brooding stance of the S60 Concept bring a new visual language to the Volvo brand. This is a beautiful design solution.
While the design may not be pure Volvo, the development of the car’s safety credentials are true to the brand’s core values. The car features a new Collision Warning system, which incorporates a Full Auto Brake and pedestrian detection system, designed to react when a pedestrian walks out in front of a car. The system will activate the car’s full braking power if the driver does not respond to the danger.
The new S60 is scheduled to go on sale in 2010 and Thomas Broberg, safety expert at Volvo Cars, has high expectations for the family sized saloon’s Collision Warning capabilities, “The previous stages were developed to help the driver avoid collisions with other vehicles. Now we are taking a giant step forward with a feature that also boosts safety for unprotected road-users,” explains Thomas Broberg, safety expert at Volvo Cars.
“What is more, we are now advancing from fifty percent to full automatic braking power. To our knowledge, none of our competitors have made such progress in this area. This technology helps us take an important step towards our long-term vision of designing cars that should not crash,” he added.
Briberg’s confidence in his product seems to know no bounds, leading to this extraordinary claim, “Our aim for 2020 is that no one should be killed or injured in a Volvo car.”
Wow, that sounds like a claim only a desperate politician will make. Volvo Australia would neither confirm or deny plans to employ Bob Hawke in a PR role!
Other innovations found in the S60 Concept include a new fuel efficient 1.6 litre diesel GTDi engine and sliding rear doors. Although, in profile view the doors look similar to suicide doors found in the Rolls Royce Phantom, they pop out and slide backwards, parallel to the car’s body in a fashion one would expect on a people mover.
Also included in the concept model is a pretty wild Orrefors crystal centre stack, housing HVAC controls. Quite how that stands up to a crash test is anyone’s guess. I’m tipping that won’t make the production model.
The S60 Concept is due for a full public release at the Detroit Auto Show in mid January 2009. More pics and full press statements after the jump. If you’ve got the patience for creative PR blurb, read the last release below, it’s a pearler!