Riotous ride: Volvo S60 Race Car

Thed Björk is a 'bloody Volvo driver'. That's one possible translation of the curses certain to get thrown at him by his competitors in the Swedish TTA Elite Racing League. Björk competes in the series driving a Volvo S60 for the Polestar team — and he's quick. To date he's second in the Scandinavian championship, just one point clear of rival (but also an S60 driver), Robert Dahlgren.

When motoring.com.au was offered a chance to sit alongside Björk in his 'Polestar Blue' racecar for two quick laps of the Gothenburg Central track, we jumped at the chance. The offer came after an opportunity to drive the S60 Polestar concept fell through, thanks to an untimely clutch problem.

But Björk wasn't originally slated to be the wheel man for our sortie out on the local track. Volvo team driver Dahlgren was, but his car's front passenger seat (on the right of the cabin) was simply too tight a fit for the writer, who boasts all the flexibility of a kevlar corset and the compactness of an unstuffed sleeping bag.

So rather than persisting to emulate the dance of the dying swan, the now humbled writer successfully boarded Björk's vehicle instead — with the relative grace of Bruce Wayne riding the batpole. But heavens, it was a tight squeeze.

Even assuming feet could be placed where they can do no damage to the car's electrics, the aggressively contoured bucket left no room for one's... umm... large-boned physique to settle in comfortably. In an average-height/above-average-weight world, the S60's passenger seat is a serious underachiever. How Björk, who must be a good 6'2" in the old money, can fit into the car is a mystery for the ages.

Forget about being faint-hearted as the car hurtles around the track, this wasn't even a relaxed place to be with the car at complete standstill, if you happen to be asthmatic or a claustrophobe.

Björk fires up the engine, a 3.5-litre VQ Nissan/Renault V6. The helmet blocks much of the engine's 400hp bark, but like love, the noise is all around. Selecting gear, Björk releases the clutch with enough revs for the car to move forward steadily out of the pits. Out on the racetrack he lets the car off its leash.

Within what feels like barely a hundred metres — but is probably a lot longer in reality — Björk is on the brakes... hard. He's then pitching the car into a 90 degree left-hander entering a section of the circuit where the grandstands are located. From there it's a short straight and a right-hand hairpin. Accelerate briefly again, before hitting the anchors and hauling the wheel to the right. Around such a short and tight track, gear changes are few, except for the tighter turns.

Another short straight leads to a left/right zig-zag, with the car barely slowing. Björk skirts the kerb on the left and then allows the car to spear across to the other side of the track, lifting the right-side wheels as he turns into the second corner and the car launches off the kerb on the inside.

The track doesn't look very forgiving, frankly -- next to nothing in the way of run-offs or tyres or grass, or sand traps. Just heaps of right neighbourly Armco.

Another couple of zig-zags, separated by short straights and we're approaching the end of the back straight. Björk is hard on the brakes once more and hurling the car into the right-hand bend. This bend opens up wide on the exit and Björk has the rear-drive S60 on the power early. Along the main straight past the pits the Volvo is really getting up to race pace. The car must be well above 200km/h along the main straight of what is a pretty short circuit — barely a mile around (1650m to be precise).

We blitz past the pits and Björk jumps on the brake pedal for the next lap. He raises his right thumb in my line of sight, checking that his passenger is okay. I acknowledge his signal with my own thumbs-up to let him know I'm fine. We circulate one more time before Björk slows for the exit to pit lane.

Disappointingly, it's over. There wasn't even enough time to settle down and watch Björk's car control techniques fully, or capture the whole essential experience for a full analysis later. Yet I'm wearing a huge grin on my face while climbing laboriously out of the S60...

For all its dramatic turn of speed and slick-tyred grip around corners, the S60 is not a punishing ride. It's fairly tractable and it's nothing like as loud as a typical racecar. In a lot of ways it's a sophisticated machine — by some race-car standards — but one that seems fairly easy to drive. Indeed, Volvo and Polestar advise that the S60 is obliged under FIA regs to run no more than 400hp, which makes it less powerful than the S60 Polestar Concept that develops 508hp — in a vehicle designed as a road car.

Where the silhouette-style racecar makes up for its power shortfall is the weight: just 1140kg all up, including the driver.

What the TTA category achieves with cars like the S60 is accessible racing. Accessible for the fans attending the track and accessible for the drivers too.

On such a short track the drivers are perhaps more focused on the competing cars around them than necessarily manhandling their own iron steed (well, carbon fibre mostly) around the track.

Somewhere between the ultra professionalism and media-friendly earnestness of a series like V8 Supercars or DTM, TTA seems to have fallen into an accommodating niche — and both the fans and the drivers are loving it.