Imagine a race team from a country not particularly recognized for motorsport prowess campaigning sedans known globally for being boxy but good, as a Dudley Moore character so eloquently put it. An uphill battle, for sure.
This story originally appeared in Volume 13 of Road & Track.
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But, bless its Swedish heart, Polestar reached the mountaintop, racing those cars with such success that Volvo made the team an official “performance partner” in 2009. Then, in 2015, Volvo acquired Polestar outright. Polestar lived every racing company’s dream, only to be turned into an EV brand.
But Polestar Racing didn’t shut down. It kept winning under a new moniker, Cyan Racing, named for the stunning blue tone long associated with speedy Volvos. The team succeeded in World Touring Car Cup racing, winning titles in 2020 and 2021 (though not with Volvos).
Now the popularity of restomodded, race-engineered, roadgoing classics offers Cyan a new opportunity for fun and profit. In this case, a carbon-bodied sports car based on the most stylish Volvo in history: the P1800 coupe.
Certainly, Singer and its reimagined 911s get a lot of credit for trendsetting at the high end of the restomod world. Now, in addition to the familiar big-buck modernized muscle cars, there are reinvigorated, carbon-bedecked vehicles such as a $400,000 Built by Legends Mine’s Nissan Skyline GT-R and a $500,000 Lancia Delta Integrale from Automobili Amos. Even the OEMs figured out how to tap into the deep pockets of bored multimillionaires who’ve run out of inspired analog machines to pay seven figures for. Jaguar “finished” a run of Lightweight E-types, Aston Martin has “reissued” the DB5, and Bentley is offering “continuation series” Blowers.
The Cyan Racing P1800 I drove costs $700,000, an insane amount of money for a Volvo. But a series build rarely has this level of detail. And there isn’t much Sixties Volvo left. Cyan retains part of the original steel chassis, windshield wipers, vent controls, and hood release. That’s it. Every other component has been reengineered or replaced.
Eye-widening metrics include a curb weight rivaling the second-generation Lotus Elise—just 2180 pounds—with the kind of power and revs that make Porsche owners take notice: 336 lb-ft of torque at 6000 rpm, 420 hp at 7000 rpm, and a redline way up at 7700. The engine is a modern 2.0-liter inline-four derived from a Volvo S60 race car and mated to a dogleg five-speed Holinger gearbox with the best notches this side of an Eighties Ferrari. The carbon-fiber driveshaft links to an independent rear suspension (the original P1800 had a solid axle) with user-selected final-drive ratios depending on the mission. The engine bay is gorgeous, with a vintage-looking long-runner plenum, individual throttle bodies, and an equal-length header on display. We’re sure there are wires in there somewhere, but you can’t see them.
The carbon-fiber body is ingeniously bonded to the steel chassis for rigidity, with the greenhouse moved back several inches for a more rakish stance and flared wheel arches to fit meaty 18-inch forged, center-lock wheels. You need big wheels to clear the giant 14-inch AP Racing brakes. The window glass is all new. The chrome surrounds and door handles are billet. A motorsport-grade fuel cell eats up the trunk space; it might as well, since the trunk has no struts to hold itself ajar. Ditto the impossibly light doors: Lacking detented stays, they won’t remain open on their own.
The interior is minimalist in the charming way only Swedes can pull off. Carbon bucket seats are off the rack and, like the door panels, nicely trimmed in felt, an odd yet perfect choice of material. Climbing in and out over the leather-wrapped titanium roll bar is the least elegant thing about the kit. I’d say they should skip the door bars, but considering how the carbon door would fare as a crash structure, I drop that thought. While the gauges and switches evoke the original P1800, they are all tough-feeling toggles and hefty, milled billet pulls. The seating position wasn’t set up for me, so the Momo Prototipo steering wheel unfortunately blocked the useful info on those beautiful gauges.
The lightness presents itself instantly. Every control has the bare minimum of weight behind it for you to know it’s there. Many times, when someone builds a very light car, a hydraulic clutch or power steering is eliminated in the name of “purity,” resulting in a vehicle that requires a lot of physical effort to drive. The P1800 Cyan uses those niceties to emphasize lightness, not remind you of sacrifices. It’s stupendously fast, with a powerband that builds all the way to redline. Its harmonic, vintage exhaust note is accompanied by more modern turbo-spool and wastegate sounds. While contemporary turbocharged engines tend to peak early, then fall off, this thing builds like a high-strung six. The shifter feels perfectly crisp. The clutch pedal is no more difficult to operate than a modern hatchback’s. The manual brakes are heavier than a normal car but far from a workout. And the pedal spacing is perfection.
The P1800 Cyan’s ride isn’t too stiff. It has only a hint of body roll, and turn-in is razor sharp. The company’s racing experience shines through.
Cyan says it optimized this particular car for canyon driving, which explains its dartiness on the freeway. The company can tailor a car’s setup to suit any client, and it needn’t be a long-term commitment. Everything can be changed anytime, though I would recommend leaving the adjustments to professionals. While I might not track the P1800, it seems up to the task. Even on a blazing summer day at altitude, the P1800 remained cool, composed, and very powerful.
My only complaint: The use of electric power steering robs the car of some road feel. Combined with an aggressive caster setup (no doubt to aid that instantaneous turn-in), the lack of feel meets a resistance to self-center exiting a corner. It’s not an issue in the canyons, where working the wheel is a delight, but it’s a little unnerving on the open sweepers of the Pacific Coast Highway. I’d probably set mine up for cruising and be perfectly content with the handling results.
I’m often let down by the phrase “classic looks and modern performance,” but Cyan actually delivers that. The P1800 is stunning. It’s fast. And it sings a thrilling tune. I would take one on a long road trip if I could, but there’s that fuel cell taking up the whole trunk. This leads to my only request: Make mine a P1800ES wagon, please.
Matt Farah is a lifelong car enthusiast who began his automotive career at dealerships, rental agencies, and detail shops before discovering the power of YouTube in 2006, with his channel The Smoking Tire. Farah has a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in Photography, helping not only create YouTube content but also providing his own photography for his Editor-at-Large position at Road & Track.
He has hosted and produced television series on NBC Sports, G4 Network, SPEED, and Esquire. The Smoking Tire Podcast is #1 in the category every week of the year. Now at 800+ episodes, The Smoking Tire podcast is the definitive guest stop for who’s who in the auto industry. Farah’s Westside Collector Car Storage is a game-changer in luxury, concierge parking that expanded to a second location in 2023.
