Volvo C30 DRIVe WTCC car to debut in Brazil

The Volvo C30 DRIVe WTCC car will make its World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) debut at the season opening race in Curitiba, Brazil. Volvo's entry has been prepared by Polestar Racing, who has previously worked with the Swedish carmaker in the Swedish and Scandinavian Touring Car Championships, but Volvo claims that it will use the 2011 WTCC season for development of the car for 2012.

"Volvo Cars has given us a sound mission to evaluate the championship, meaning that we are initially not focusing on results but rather on preparing a base that we could build upon for 2012. We have got an exciting and rewarding challenge ahead of us," said Christian Dahl, Managing Director of Polestar Racing.

Polestar Racing is developing a new engine for the C30 DRIVe WTCC car, which will be used from the middle of the season. "We are starting the season with our current two litre engine, before later in the year switching to an all-new 1.6-liter turbo engine, based on a completely new Volvo engine family. We are currently working flat out with the new engine and we are confident of our progress," said Dahl.

The new entry for the 2011 season will also feature a new livery for the Volvo Polestar Racing team, with the C30 DRIVe WTCC car painted in Polestar's distinctive blue. The colour was also featured on the Volvo C30 Polestar prototype concept car.