The Polestar 2 Arctic Circle is the whim of the Polestar engineering team, an electric with rally inspiration and a good series of modifications with the sole purpose of being faster, more agile, and more fun on ice and snow.
There are things in life, material or not, that we wish we had but we can’t. Much to our regret, the Polestar 2 Arctic Circle is one of them. The Swedish firm has decided to do one of those crazy things that manufacturers sometimes surprise us with, a Polestar 2 with a rallying spirit and whose name already gives us a clue as to which is the favorite environment for this electric car.
We said “reluctantly” because the Polestar 2 Arctic Circle is a fun toy from the Polestar engineering team, which unfortunately is just a prototype that won’t go into mass production. However, this does not prevent us from stopping to learn a little more about this electric car designed to skid from side to side on ice and snow tracks.
The car that has been taken as a base is a Polestar 2 Long-range Dual engine with Performance Pack, to which a good series of modifications have been added. It has higher ground clearance (+30 mm) and a suspension with 30% softer springs and three-way Öhlins shock absorbers adjustable in hardness and height, specific to this car. It is also fitted with 245/35 winter tires, each with 490 four-millimeter metal studs, and 19-inch OZ Racing wheels that, again, are not available on the stock car.
Reinforcements have been fitted to the front and rear strut bars to increase torsional rigidity and improve steering response, and a carbon fiber shovel has been fitted to the rear of the car to bail out snow in the event of drifting off the road. track and get stuck.
The people at Polestar have also increased the power and torque to 476 hp (350 kW) and 680 Nm, respectively, and a new Launch Control system has been developed, which is activated from the paddles behind the steering wheel. All this with a single purpose: to be fast and agile on snow and ice. The brakes are one of the few things that remain unchanged, keeping the Brembo brakes with 4-piston calipers from the stock car.
Visually, rally inspiration goes without saying. Starting with the white OZ Racing wheels and continuing with the four Stedi Quad Pro LED headlights. All this is seasoned with an exterior decoration with matt gray paint and white details, a carbon fiber skid plate to protect the underbody, and Recaro front seats upholstered in charcoal with the Polestar logo in gold.
However, this electric will not be marketed -not even in the markets close to the icy latitudes where it has been conceived-. This car will certainly give Polestar’s chief chassis engineer, rally driver Joakim Rydholm, a lot of fun, but also fine-tune the set-up of the production cars.
The name of the car is due to the area where Polestar carries out its intense winter testing program, between December and March, Arctic Circle. There they get to reach 35 degrees below zero, conditions in which the components of the car (and even the test team itself) are pushed to the limit.
