Yahoo Autos Volvo P1800 Cyan Racing Continuation Is a Carbon-Fiber Restomod
From the October 2022 issue of Car and Driver.
What to do in a long, cold Swedish winter after the glow of winning the 2017 FIA World Touring Car Cup championship has worn off but before the next season starts? Some might dog-sled under the northern lights or plot that year's Gävle Goat arson, but the Cyan Racing team in Mölndal, Sweden, had a different plan for offseason entertainment: rewriting history. What if the classic Volvo P1800 had the performance to match its design? The folks at Cyan (formerly Polestar Performance before Volvo bought the name) were just the ones to take on the task of making a P1800 as fast as it is pretty. The work took more than three years, but Cyan eventually introduced its finished product amid a pandemic. Now the P1800 Cyan has finally made it to the States. So we took it to our desert proving grounds to get the numbers. Skål!
How It's Made
Volvo built the original P1800 from 1961 through 1973, with few cosmetic changes during its run. Any year of the classic coupe can form the basis of Cyan's P1800. "Because so little of the original car is used, we can start out with a donor car beyond what would normally be seen as restorable," says Hans Bååth, Cyan Racing general manager.
Cyan strips and sandblasts the donor car, then replaces all exterior body panels with carbon fiber. Only a small portion of the original's chassis and transmission tunnel remains. Every surface has been lightly tweaked from stock. The whole car looks smoother and lower. The cabin is set back, or rather the wheel wells are moved forward, the hood elongated, and the rear fenders shortened for less overhang and a leaner stance.
The final product weighs 2424 pounds (a new P1800S weighed about 2320 pounds), with only 47.8 percent of that mass on its front axle—perfect for drifting in Gothenburg or, as we did, going on a brisk 200-mile journey over the California mountains in search of Swedish pancakes.
Step Inside
The optional roll cage is titanium. It's fairly unobtrusive unless you need to pull the hand brake, which is tucked against the lower bar. Racing buckets look snazzy with a five-point harness but are available with more padding if you enjoy being comfortable.
Reflecting the understated design Scandinavia is famous for, the P1800 Cyan's interior is soft gray felt and black leather. A beautifully modernized gauge cluster appears vintage, and the radio is Bluetooth compatible, so you can cue up ABBA songs.
Adelante, Adelante
With most modern powerplants hidden under plastic covers, one doesn't expect beauty when popping the hood anymore. This makes the Cyan's elegantly displayed turbocharged 2.0-liter that much more stunning. Based on the race engine from the Volvo S60 TC1 car, it makes 420 horsepower and 336 pound-feet of torque. An Inconel header tucks neatly below the block, and a low-mass titanium-aluminide turbine wheel spins up quickly on ceramic ball bearings. Peak boost pressure is 24.7 psi. The transmission is a Holinger five-speed, and the slim shifter works with the sweet click of a money-filled briefcase being opened in a backroom.
