S60 Sales up as Volvo V8 Supercar Nears Completion

Volvo’s entry into V8 Supercars racing has already resulted in an increase in interest in the S60 sedan six months before it make its racing debut at the 2014 Clipsal 500.

“We have seen the order write on S60 over the last two weeks the highest since it has been launched,” Volvo Car Australia managing director Matt Braid told v8supercars.com.au.

“Those cars haven’t been delivered yet, but we are seeing a pick-up already which we hadn’t been anticipating to be that fast.”

Braid was speaking during a visit last week to Garry Rogers Motorsport to view the build progress of the first two S60 Car of the Future V8 Supercars.

Chassis GRM16 was having its inner panels attached and will soon be ready for outer panels to be hung, while GRM17 was on the jig and being welded together.

“That’s the first time I have seen the inner panels welded on it and ready for the outer panels to be hung on it,” said Braid.

“You can see the S60 being a race car and that’s the exciting part for me. You look at it and its going to be a good looking car.

“If you can have a fast car that’s what you really want, but if you can have a fast car that looks alright as well then even better. I think it’s going to be a good looking race car as well and that’s exciting.”

Volvo’s entry into V8 Supercars from 2014 was announced in June. GRM will swap from the Holden Commodore VF to racing the S60, which will employ a 5.0-litre version of the Volvo B8444S engine developed by Polestar Racing in Sweden. 

Significant commercial backing for the new factory team comes from Volvo Car Australia and GRM’s current primary sponsors Fujitsu and Valvoline.

The S60 is a different proposition to the other recent arrivals on the V8 grid, the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG and Nissan Altima because they started racing in Australia before they went on-sale here as production cars. The Benz launched in June, the Nissan goes on-sale in November.

By contrast, the current generation S60 was launched in December 2010 in Australia and Braid makes no bones about the fact the V8 Supercars program is primarily focussed around boosting recognition of that model, rather than being an overall brand building exercise.

He says order rate increase indicates the initial announcement of a V8 program has registered with the public and had an impact, as has an S60 road car advertising campaign that links to the racing plans.

“We have seen people walking into dealerships, seeing the S60 and saying, ‘Oh is that the car that is going racing? That is a good looking car’. They haven’t seen it on the road and the racing has made them open their eyes and look at it. People see it as quite a good looking car, it’s a handsome car.

“I think that is where we are getting excited, because the S60 could actually be born from this car even though it has been in existence in the marketplace for two years. People say, ‘That’s that new Volvo!’.”

Reports that it will have a static reveal at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 appear wide of the mark, although Volvo is planning some sort of presence at Mount Panorama. Braid said the reveal and launch plans for the racing car were currently under study.

The S60 V8 Supercar is on schedule for its first shakedown run in December before entering aerodynamic parity testing. 

“I would like to be there for the initial running of the car just to have a look,” Braid said. “If business doesn’t allow me to do it then I won’t but I would certainly love to be there and pop my head over the wall.”