UNDER THE SKIN: VOLVO S60 – A TALE OF TWO SIXTIES
The tale of two Volvo S60’s
Volvo’s V8 Supercar may not race any more but the S60 fights on, in the World Touring Car Championship. It’s much different to the car we saw in Australia – and can it win the title this year?
By PHIL BRANAGAN
The Volvo S60 Supercar debuted in 2014
THE VOLVO S60 Supercar might be gone from Australian racetracks but in the memories of many – particularly someone like Scott McLaughlin – its legend lives on.
From the time the car first appeared and made an impression in Adelaide in 2014 (the ‘Jandal’ race) to its final bow at Homebush last December the Swedish missile made more than its presence felt. It looked different to the other Supercars; it sure as heck sounded different; unlike any pushrod V8 motor, and more like two 250cc four-cylinder motorbikes fighting for the lead in a race.
That made it a prime candidate to be a car at which AA looked for Under the Skin. Then, it stopped racing, which made writing about it a fraction… challenging.
But the S60 only stopped racing in Australia. In the World Touring Car Championship the car – or versions of it – now races against the might of, well, Honda’s Civic, Citroen’s C4 and some kind of Lada.
The Volvo S60 still competes in WTCC
We are being a bit facetious here, because to anyone used to the rumble and the roar of a V8-powered Supercar, a four-cylinder shopping trolley with wings looks a bit… well, tame. And in spite of its title status the WTCC has just not caught fire the way that the FIA hoped that it might have. But a world title is clearly a lure for makes – well, some makes.
Volvo announced its WTCC project 30 years to the day after it won the 1985 European Touring Car Championship title with the Volvo 240 Turbo.
“We have chosen the FIA WTCC as our global motorsport platform as it combines the cutting edge technology of our Volvo cars with exciting racing all over the world,” said Niels Möller, COO of Polestar, the Volvo Cars Performance Brand.
“The championship enables us to further develop our technology and utilise development from the racing circuits directly to our products for performance oriented Volvo customers.”
Before the company went public work had already started on the Volvo S60 Polestar TC1 race car, as Mikael Mohlin, Polestar Cyan Racing’s Technical Director, Chassis Engineering, told AA.
“Volvo started with this project at the beginning of 2014,” he explained. “The target was to have a car ready [to race] by the end of 2015 but that target became 2016. The development was a bit up and down but it was soon understood how big the undertaking was. It was not many months before the debut of the car was postponed.”
The car met with limited success in 2016. It took only two rounds to get an S60 onto the podium, which happened in Slovakia, but it was well into the second half of the season that Nicky Catsburg managed to score a maiden win, in Moscow. By year’s end Catsburg was the best-placed Volvo driver, finishing seventh overall. Thed Bjork was 20th and Volvo finished fourth, out of four, in the Manufacturers’ Championship – and was the only make to go the whole season without being required to carry ‘success ballast’.
But, under the skin the story is interesting – and so is the series itself.
First things first.
Volvo S60’s four-cylinder B4204T6 motor
The WTCC is based on what was going to be an engine unit used across nearly all categories of motorsport. The initial idea was that the ‘global’ engine would be a 1.6-litre four-cylinder, with the basic unit being used in Formula 1 (with turbocharging and Energy Recovery/Hybrid systems); Sportscar racing (ditto, but in a different specification to differentiate with F1’s IP); Touring Cars and Rallying (with turbocharged units); and even entry-level racing, with performance limited by how much turbocharging, if any, would be permitted.
The one-size fits all racing motor was a great idea, save for one small but telling factor; pretty much no one outside of the FIA was vaguely interested in it.
The dissent started straight away in F1, with the death knell coming from Ferrari, which since the middle of the last century has built a business model on charging its customers outrageous amounts of money for road cars powered by V12s, V8s and even V6s, but which had absolutely no interest in making a four-cylinder car. F1’s engineers would eventually settle for a V6 with similar displacement and technical capabilities to the proposed four, and that is what operates in F1 today.
Likewise, one by one categories shifted their gaze, to look elsewhere for their forms of motivation. But the ‘global’ engine concept did find a home in the World Rally Championship – and the WTCC.
As there is in the British Touring Car Championship, teams without manufacturer support, or the means to develop their own engines, have the option of using a generic motor but Volvo chose not to.
“To use the Volvo engine as base and not go for the available generic WTCC race engine for our car was a no-brainer,” explained Mattias Evensson, head of engine development at Cyan Racing.
“Volvo engines are suitable for racing purposes in terms of power, technology and durability, as we have proven previously in the STCC, V8 Supercars and WTCC. The Drive-E engine is a perfect example with its low friction technology and exotic materials.”
So under the bonnet is a racing unit is based on Volvo’s four-cylinder B4204T6 motor, which is seen in a variety of models. And it was here that AA struck a little hurdle. The S60 is effectively a works racing car and as such, there is not a huge amount of information available to share with the media…
“It is effectively the four-cylinder standard engine,” says Mohlin. “It is from 1.6 up to 2 litres [in production form] and it has been adapted to run [in the race car] at 1.6-litre size. I don’t know what the piston dimensions are exactly but they are not far away [from standard].
“The engine block is a standard block. I think it has a smaller bore, to suit the slightly smaller cylinders.
“The injectors are direct injection and that is specific for each engine. The turbocharger is the same one for everybody, and everybody is allowed to run an ALS system.”
The Anti Lag System consists of a valve that opens when the throttle is closing, and directs air into the exhausts, where is it mixed with the unburnt fuel being expelled. That prompts the turbocharger to maintain its speed and therefore, boost – and limit turbo lag.
All cars, whether with ‘bespoke’ or generic engines, share a common turbocharger supplied by Garrett, and boost pressure is limited to 2.5 bar. Engine revs are capped to 8500rpm; minimum engine weight is 82kg, including some ancillaries. Certain internal items – connecting rods, pistons and some others – are subject to weight minimums.
Philosophically, the engine rules are a carryover from what was Super2000, but in 2016 there was a dramatic change. Formerly the engines were controlled by a 33mm air restrictor; that was changed to 36mm. That does not sound like much but the effect was such that power outputs that had been just over 300hp leapt immediately to 380hp and, with further development, is now creeping towards 400.
And there is one other important change; barring unexpected occurrences like crash damage, nowadays each driver has to do a whole season on a single motor.
“The engine life is about 4000 kilometres, says Mohlin. “You can count on that [distance] being more than the Practice, Qualifying and all of the races, which are about 25 minutes.”
While we are accustomed to seeing Touring Cars – in our case, Supercars – built around a purpose-built racing chassis that is not the scenario in the WTCC.
“In the regulations, the bodyshell is mainly that of a normal road car,” says Mohlin.
“You have areas that you are allowed to change, and that is mainly because of historic reasons. In the past there was a lot of dependence on the basic layout of the car.”
The S60 is the biggest car on the WTCC grid
So the car is built around the base S60’s steel bodyshell, but with various panels reproduced in carbon fibre – including the roof. But at either end there are major differences.
“The wheelbase can be slightly modified but the rest of the car’s dimensions are standard,” says Mohlin. “There is no limit per se for the overall size, though the maximum width allowed is 2m – and that is no problem for any of the cars.
“The S60 is a large car but is was thoroughly assessed in the beginning, in terms of what car we wanted to race. It was quickly decided that we wanted to race the sedan [version] and the same is there with the Citroen C4.”
The S60 is the biggest car on the WTCC grid. For instance, the length of the car is 4626mm, compared to the Honda Civic at 4498mm. The racing version of the S60 is the same length as the road car – but that does not dictate that the body shape is absolutely identical.
“In the regulations you have the possibility to move the axis of the wheels so that you can elongate the wheelbase a little bit,” Mohlin explains. “You can extend the body front and rear – larger bumpers – and you can move the wheel axes out from the middle.”
Part of that is because of cost saving. To limit the amount of money that teams can go through refining suspension design, all cars must run a simple and similar system.
Says Mohlin, “With the new regulations it was decided that all the cars should have MacPherson struts, front and rear, regardless of what the car’s original configuration was. You are allowed to have the ‘standard’ shell but you can modify the front mounts at the top and the bottom, to accommodate the Macpherson struts.”
It is not the same for gearboxes – and the gearbox is not a control item, per se, though the teams have met common ground with Xtrac’s P1046 unit.
WTCC Xtrac P1046 Gearbox
“You can run whatever gearbox you want,” says Mohlin. “In reality everyone is running the same Xtrac gearbox as used in the BTCC. The only limit on the gearbox is that you are allowed to have two different gearsets to change during the season. You can only use a mechanical differential and no ramps.
“The clutch is open, you can use whatever you like, but everyone is using something similar.”
Yokohama supplies the tyres, and like Supercars, they come in slick and wet varieties, but not intermediates. The tyre size is 250/660/18; Supercars tyres are wider and higher, at 290/675/18.
“It is a unique tyre,” says Mohlin. “I don’t want to say they are good, or they are bad. The tyres have special features.
“The cars are a bit different to some; they are quite heavy and they have quite a bit of power so the tyres need to be quite robust. They have a lot of degradation, and I am not certain where that is by choice or circumstances. They fall off quite a lot; they are really quick in Qualifying but they drop off quite a lot.”
That promotes good racing; at least, that is the theory.
Another difference is the wheels. Supercars have a control wheel supplied by Rimstock; in the WTCC the sizes are identical but you can source them from anywhere.
Mohlin explains; “There is a minimum weight for the wheels and they have ideas that the wheels will be a way of controlling cost – for some reason. You are allowed to use as many [studs] as you want, but I think that you can use as many as you want. The minimum weight for the wheels is 10 kilos, and you are not allowed to have any variation, in offset, they all must be the same. The brand and design are free – but the reality is that everyone has the same wheels…
“They are quite cheap, but what drives the cost is you need to have a lot of them in circulation. We would have five sets per car per weekend, and if you add rain tyres to that, you can have eight or nine sets for weekend.”
On top of the wheels is the suspension and here, the WTCC diverges from many series. Teams and manufacturers work together to finalise the specifications for a three-year period – and that three-year window is the same for everyone. That has an impact on suspension design – though it does not have to be the same for everyone, other than the MacPherson strut layout.
“Every third year you homologate the car,” says Mohlin, “and that includes the chassis, the subframe and the suspension pickup points, and the design of the uprights. As long as you are able to use the same uprights you can alter the design of the damper, but I think that all of the competitors use the same design for the three years.
“MacPherson struts are tricky and we are quite keen to have an integrated design. That limits what you can do to the damper anyway, because you always have the same upright.”
Ohlins dampers in the Volvo S60
That means Ohlins are in use across most of the teams – and very understandably so in the case of Volvo, since they are both based in Sweden…
Inevitably, I have to ask… Volvo is clearly keen on the WTCC as a showcase for its cars – and it continues to compete, with much different S60s, in the Swedish Championship. But, as a man who is clearly enthusiastic about all things racing, wouldn’t there be the temptation, just once, to sneak an S60 Supercar on the grid?
Mohlin bursts out laughing.
“They would hear it!” he says.
“I think the Supercar looks nicer because there is something in the regulations that makes the WTCC look not as good. The shape of the fenders are dictated by the rules and when you homologate the car, you are fixing in the things like the floor, for example. That is how it is.
“The cars do not look as good as they might look, and that is the difference between the Supercar and the WTCC car.”
Volvo did not win any titles in Supercars, but the competition it provided went down a treat with many of the fans.
As this edition went to press Catsburg and his Cyan Polestar Volvo were leading the WTCC. How would people cope with the notion of Volvo, World Champion?
We just might find out soon.
SPECS
Inside the Volvo S60 Superca
Volvo S60 WTCC [Supercar]
Type: Four-door sedan front-wheel drive [rear-wheel drive]
Length: 4535mm
Width: 1899mm
Wheelbase: 2776mm [2820mm]
Chassis: Steel Volvo bodyshell, modified by Cyan Polestar Racing [Control spaceframe chassis by Pace Innovations, chrome-moly construction]
Weight: 1100kg including driver (+ success ballast) [1410kg including driver]
Engine: 4-cylinder Volvo B4204T6 turbocharged [60-degree V8 Volvo B4204T6 normally aspirated]
Engine Weight: 82kg [200kg]
Max Power: 390hp @ 7000rpm [645hp @ 7200rpm]
Max Torque: 332lb-ft [479lb-ft]
Transmission: Xtrac P1046 6-speed, with paddle shift activation, Limited Slip Diff [Albins ST6 6-speed transaxle, with lever shift, Spool ‘Diff’]
Clutch: [Triple plate carbon 7 1/4 inch]
Brakes:
Front: AP Racing 4-Piston Caliper, 380mm rotor [Control AP Racing 6-Piston Caliper, 395mm rotor]
Rear: AP Racing 2-Piston Caliper 280mm rotor [Control AP Racing 4-Piston Caliper 355mm rotor]
Suspension:
F and R: MacPherson strut, design homologated for three seasons [F and R: Double-wishbone, suspension geometry designed by teams/suppliers]
Wheels: 18” x 9” forged aluminium, five-stud [Control Rimstock 18” x 11” forged aluminium, centre lock]
Tyres:
Yokohama Slicks/Wets 250/660/18 [Dunlop Slicks/Wets 290/675/18]
Performance:
0-100kmh: 4.2s [3.5s]
Top speed: 275kmh [300kmh]
For our latest Under The Skin feature, pick up the next issue of Auto Action Magazine, on sale this week. In the meantime follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or sign up for our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates.
