How To (Ultimately) Control Your Polestar'd Volvo

What's better than driving five of Volvo UK's latest and greatest on a track in Wokingham? Try five Volvo cars on a track in Wokingham, three of which have been given the Polestar treatment, a professional driving school in the form of Ultimate Car Control, a former Brit

Adnan Ebrahim

18 May 2015

The primary reason for our assembly in Berkshire, aside from a generous invitation from Volvo, was to take part in a course that usually runs for fleet drivers only. Dubbed "Excellence in Professional Driving" and run by Ultimate Car Control, the course offers total corporate compliance for businesses under UK Health and Safety Laws. If that sounds a bit too red-tape for your liking, then understand that this is something that will affect you if you're ever self-employed, driving a company car, or driving your own vehicle on business time.

The aim of the day was to get us up to speed (pun definitely intended) on safety techniques that would help in ordinary, everyday driving circumstances and to navigate around the dangers that pop up. How you react to these dangers from behind the wheel can often be the difference between a life saved and a life lost, and after a morning briefing featuring some videos and a larger-than-life demonstration toy car, we were led out onto the circular track for Stage 1.

Stage 1 involved jumping in the back of a Volvo V60 with Robb Gravett, who also happens to double up as the Founder of Ultimate Car Control, for a couple of demonstration laps to get us familiar with the coned course layout. Robb has an amazing résumé which spans time in the British Touring Car Championship, numerous wins throughout his career and accolades such as "British Racing Driver of the Year". As instructors go, certainly not too shabby.

Out of the instructor car and into my first drive, which happened to be the S60 saloon with a 240 horsepower T5 engine. This was my first ever Volvo drive way back when and I was keen to see what difference the extra 90 horsepower would have over the T3 I first piloted.

Planting the throttle produced near immediate response despite the turbocharged nature of the engine and I glided off towards the first sweeping right-hander. Power, power, power. The heavens had already started to spit down on us which made holding nerve that little bit harder, and on top of this, my first few laps were to be without instruction (so that the Ultimate Car Control dedicated crew could see how awful I was). Braking as late as I could into the corner, I meandered my way round a 180 degree hairpin and moved on to the next one. The fact that the car was a manual added another factor to the equation of what was my first proper bit of track action.

After 3 laps, and with only a few comments to attempt to cheer me up ("Not bad for a first-timer", etc) we returned to the instruction cabin for a quick lesson in control. And this is where we were taught UCC's basic cornering technique.

It's quite simple really. You're on a straight piece of tarmac approaching a bend. What rookie drivers tend to do is prod the brake and continue holding it down to scrub off a little speed. They then lift off the brake and turn in to the corner to realise they haven't taken enough speed off and that there is no grip in the front wheels. After another spell on the brake pedal, they find themselves having understeered dangerously towards the kerb and vowing never to repeat.

Best practice is to follow three basic steps:

1. Make sure the car is stable on approach to the corner and travelling in a straight line as you apply the brake2. Under braking, the front of the car will press down as the weight transfers to the front. It is imperative to brake in a straight line3. Turn in to the corner at the same instant you release the brake and the nose of the car begins to rise, but with the weight still over the front wheels for optimal directional change

To really visualise the difference between turning into a corner with the front wheels fully weighted and without weight, we tried our hands on a slalom course laid out for us. The idea was to go through the slalom course at a steady 40mph and upon reaching the end to brake in a straight line and quickly release the pedal followed by rapid turn of the steering wheel to simulate dodging an animal or child which has jumped out onto the road. Those who didn't turn in instantly after releasing the brake found themselves understeering, taking a wider line and producing some horrible tyre wail in the process.

It was at this moment I also managed to get my hands on a car I had been aching to get into. Yes, the C30 T5 Polestar. From just looking at this creature, you know it's special. The Polestar Blue paintwork instantly smacks you in the face and whilst it's actually a special vinyl wrap covering Ice White paintwork, it's definitely an option I'd spec. The juiciest modification though comes from the Polestar engine upgrade which incidentally keeps your warranty intact. Happy days. Power rises by 20hp to a special 250hp arriving at 5,500rpm whilst torque gets a nice 50Nm boost to 370Nm.

Inside the cabin and the story is still the same as the rest of the C30 range (the D3 R-Design we tested here including), that is to say that modernisation is still needed and everything is starting to look a tad out-of-date (I'm looking at you instrument panel and navigation). But it's comfortable, and the sporty leather seats did a great job of holding both myself and my instructor in our places around the slalom course without any awkward shoulder bumps.

Slot the notchy gearstick into first gear and the car pulls away without fuss. I didn't witness the slight torque steer others have complained about and in my mind the chassis does a great job at planting power down, especially considering all of the 250hp is going straight to the front wheels. Plant your foot in second gear and the car takes off and you start hitting speeds you thought were previously unattainable in a fiery hatch. There is also very little intrusion from the external elements - this is a Volvo after all and build quality has never been an issue. Perhaps one small criticism would be the lack of noise from the five-cylinder unit; I want to hear all the burbles and gruffness of the note but instead I found that much of it was muffled.

Back to Ultimate Car Control and after completing 50 odd laps of the short slalom course each, we went back onto the original track to practice the car control techniques we had learnt. Let's call this Stage 3.

It was also at this final point of the day that I got my hands on the monster. The V60 T6 Polestar has earned itself a bit of a reputation as being the most unbelievable, craziest, madddest estate on the market. You just wouldn't expect 329 savage horses to spout from a Volvo estate, but the engineers in Sweden have worked their magic. The outcome is a car, which with AWD power output and a moderately fast-shifting automatic 'box, eats up tarmac and begs to be driven hard.

With my newly learnt "brake straight, load up front end, turn in" technique, I managed to really get a feel for the course and discovered the Polestar'd car's performance capabilities. A limited top speed of 155mph (although I didn't get anywhere close to that) at a price of £35,780 without options might seem steep, but you get a lot of car for your money.

Before I knew it, my Ultimate Car Control experience had come to an end. The rain didn't hold off but in all honesty, it made braking late and hard all the more exhilarating. These are the types of manoeuvres you simply never get a chance to practice everyday and seeing ABS working its socks off to scrub off speed as well as handling dynamics of the car around faster corners really makes you realise how far car technology has come in the past 20 years.

It's also made me realise how much I want to drive the Volvo C30 Polestar again. And if it's also whetted your appetite, make sure you take a look at Ultimate Car Control days near you and book yourself a session. Who knows, it might just save someone's life.