Volvo's V8 Supercar future set

Volvo will contest the 2014 V8 Supercar Championship with a car powered by a Volvo V8.

In bombshell news for the series and the brand worldwide, the Swedish marque will join Nissan and Mercedes-AMG as the newest members of the V8 Supercar circus.

Final approval for Volvo’s entry into the V8SC series was signed off at a board level meeting (believed to have taken place in Sweden) last week. The agreement is the culmination to several months of discussion between Volvo Car Australia, V8 Supercars and Garry Rogers Motorsport (GRM).

As previously reported by motoring.com.au, the deal will be confirmed today at the media launch of the new road-going S60 Polestar sports sedan in Brisbane.

The deal will see Volvo V8-engined S60s racing alongside Commodores, Falcons, Altimas and E-Class sedans in the 2014 season. It’s not clear at this time whether Volvo’s entry will contractually delay the entry of any other brands to the series.

Under the arrangement, the S60s will fielded by GRM, replacing the team’s current Commodores. The cars will sport existing sponsors’ livery but Volvo’s entry has the support of the factory and will also inject new sponsors to the series.

V8 Supercars’ Car of the Future (CotF) ‘architect’ Mark Skaife played an integral role in securing the manufacturer.

Skaife and Volvo Car Australia boss Matt Braid worked closely on the proposal that was presented to and approved by Volvo’s board. Skaife also brought GRM and Volvo together and has also brought in the same Computer Aided Design (CAD) expert who helped shape the Altima’s panels to fit on to the CotF chassis.

Under the new agreement GRM will work closely with Polestar, Volvo’s worldwide performance partner. Volvo’s equivalent of Mercedes-AMG or BMW’s M division, Polestar currently races S60s in the Swedish TTA Elite Racing League. A silhouette formula, the TTA League features Volvo-bodied mid-engined V6 racers based on RenaultSport’s Megane Trophy.

Volvo has singled out Australia as a trial market for its S60 Polestar performance flagship, a turbocharged six-cylinder all-wheel-drive mid-size executive model we first drove in Sweden in April.

motoring.com.au had agreed with Volvo Car Australia to withhold details of the V8 Supercar entry until the June 17 Polestar launch. A leak via specialist racing media scuttled that agreement. Volvo Car Australia has since banned motoring.com.au’s Editor-in-Chief (author of this article) from Monday’s launch and the V8SC announcement.

motoring.com.au first learned of the Volvo V8 Supercar entry prior to the Austin (USA) round of the championship. The news went from wild rumour to fact after frantic phone calls flew from the Swedish marque’s Sydney headquarters to V8 Supercar (V8SC) officials on site at the series’ first US market round. The phone calls also corresponded with Volvo signing a letter of intent with V8SC to secure “clear air” for the announcement.

Volvo officials visited the Austin event under the guise of observing the brand’s activities in the US-based Pirelli World Challenge series. S60 Volvos, supported by Volvo North America, contest the championship under the K-PAX Racing banner. The AWD cars are powered by modified 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo-petrol engines.

The V8SC Volvo/GRM racer will feature a naturally aspirated V8 and rear-wheel drive under the series’ existing rule structure.

Though it was possible the V8SC S60s would use a Chevrolet-based ‘generic’ V8, motoring.com.au has confirmed the racer will use a stroked 5.0-litre version of Volvo’s Yamaha-designed and built 4.4-litre V8.

Sticking with its own engine will not only increase the ‘authenticity’ of the S60 V8 Supercar, it will also allay any angst for Nissan Motorsport or Erebus, which have outlaid millions of dollars in the struggle to make DOHC production-based engines competitive against the pushrod Ford and Holden (Chev) V8 engines.

The Volvo differs in one key area from all existing V8SC powerplants. Instead of the conventional 90-degree V-angle, the Volvo engine is a 60-degree vee. This could potentially deliver its tuners benefits in terms of firing order (and attendant traction boosts) depending on the engine’s crank design.

V8SC sources say projections and simulations have confirmed the powerplant is capable of producing competitive levels of horsepower and torque. Early engine development is said to already be underway.

Volvo has offered V8-powered S80 and XC90 variants in the past but these are no longer produced. The production cars feature the Yamaha 4.4-litre engine mounted transversely. As for the V8 Supercar engine the production car V8 was also built around around a 60-degree configuration.

Ironically, Volvo announced in May that it had commenced production of a new family of turbocharged four-cylinder engines. It says the new VEA engines will eventually power the full spectrum of Volvo models.

Volvo Car Australia sources have played down the four-cylinder versus eight-cylinder dichotomy the series entry creates. They say a V8 entry is not at odds with the company’s four-cylinder future.

Volvo Car Australia has denied repeatedly the V8SC announcement would take place and as late as Friday its Public Affairs Manager Oliver Peagam told motoring.com.au: “We are aware of the media speculation but we have nothing further to add at this point”.

GRM boss Garry Rogers would only offer: “We will be racing in V8 Supercars in 2014, potentially in the Dunlop Series as well as the main championship. Beyond that I have nothing to say at the moment.”

In June 2012, Polestar boss Hans Baath told motoring.com.au that his company and the TTA League had looked closely at V8SC in the set-up of the Volvo’s participation in TTA.

-- With staff

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