Experimental Polestar 2 debuts at Goodwood Festival of Speed – 476 PS; chassis, styling improvements

At this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, Polestar brought out an experimental Polestar 2 to tackle the famous hill course. According to Volvo’s offshoot EV brand, the special vehicle was created to demonstrate the design and performance potential beyond what customers typically get.

“I challenged the design and engineering teams to play with the Polestar 2 and come up with something that makes a strong statement for Goodwood,” said Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar. “For a few months I have enjoyed driving another experimental Polestar 2, nicknamed ‘Beast’, around our Gothenburg campus, which inspired the team to come up with this version for Goodwood. We want to flex our muscles and explore opportunities,” he added.

Based on the long range, dual-motor version of the Polestar 2, the experimental car sees a power boost to 476 PS (469 hp or 350 kW), which is a significant improvement from the default 408 PS (402 hp or 300 kW). The company didn’t provide a torque figure, but it should also be more than the regular car’s 660 Nm and result in a quicker 0-100 km/h time – the regular car completes this sprint in 4.7 seconds.

Aside from the added electrical grunt, Polestar also gave the car a strong stance by widening the front and rear tracks by 10 mm on each side. This is accompanied by prominent wheel arches to house the 21-inch wheels and six-piston Akebono front brakes from the Polestar 1. The former is paired with 275/30 Pirelli P Zero Rosso tyres that are also carried over from the performance plug-in hybrid model.

Other changes include a ride height that is now 30 mm lower than stock, while springs have been stiffened by 80% at the front and 40% at the rear. The adjustable Öhlins DFV dampers that comes with the optional Performance Pack have been upgraded to three-way performance dampers, which the company says are approximately 30% stiffer.

For increased rigidity, Polestar fitted the carbon-fibre front suspension strut bar taken from an S60 Polestar Engineered, which is complemented by a bespoke rear strut bar. In addition to the mechanical improvements, this Polestar 2 also sports bolder front and rear bumpers with additional colour-coded design accents.

Further aesthetic revisions come in the form of a Snow Matte paint finish with a Magnesium Matte racing stripe, colour-coded front grille and gloss black side mirrors. The larger wheels also feature a two-tone finish featuring glossy and matte black surfaces.

“This car is what happens when we are given freedom to go beyond our limits. We already have such great handling and performance characteristics in Polestar 2, but when Thomas asked me to make something special for Goodwood, I was really excited to up the stakes,” commented Joakim Rydholm, Polestar’s chief chassis engineer.