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HEICO SPORTIV – The all new Volvo S60. from heicofilm on Vimeo.

Video has just been released of the Volvo S60 Heico Sportiv. Wow. It looks terrifically sexy! And being a Volvo, it’s super safe.

The Heico Sportiv S60 boosts power to 330 horsepower and 339 pound foot torque. That’s good enough for a 0-100 time in 5.8 seconds. If I’m honest, that number seems a bit disappointing. All that power with only a 5.8 0-100 time? I guess the AWD system must be really heavy. It’s not like 5.8 seconds is anything to sneeze at.

Plus, when your car looks this good, you’ll want to give people enough time to look in awe anyway.

[Heico Film]

Oh Hi: 2011 Heico Sportiv Volvo S60

Even though the 2011 Volvo S60 is not officially available for sale yet, that hasn’t stopped tuning company Heico Sportiv from having a go at Volvo’s latest stylish offering.

They took the standard T6 engine and boosted output by 30 horsepower. As a result the Heico Sportiv S60 develops 330 horses and 300 pound feet of torque. In addition, Heico Sportive revised the front facia, gave it some big gunmetal coloured wheels, and a rear diffuser with a quad tailpipe set up. Nice.

They also plan on reconfiguring the exhaust and suspension to more sporting tastes. If they give it a six speed manual transmission too, I’d say they have a winner. I’ll take mine in the matte black pictured above too!

[Autoblog]

Volvo C60 Revealed!

Well this is a bit of a surprise.

To my knowledge (which is vast in terms of the auto industry – just a fact, not bragging) Volvo had no plans of replacing the C70 any time soon or making any coupe/convertible variants of the new 2011 S60. Apparently Volvo was quite secretive about this one though.

The image above was snapped at a private presentation of Volvo’s future models. Cell phones and cameras were banned for obvious reasons, but that didn’t stop a brave soul from sneaking one in and taking this pic.

We can see that Volvo will be retaining the hardtop that the C70 is famously known for (it folds in three pieces!). On top of that, it keeps a very simialr S60 front end, but it is expected to have revised tail lights.

For power, I’m happy to report that the new T6 that the C60′s four door brother has under the hood will make it over. One of the main gripes with the C70 was its lack of power. That should fix that issue just fine.

The C60 joins the 60-series lineup of the S60 sedan, XC60 crossover and V60 wagon.

[World Car Fans via Top Speed]

2011 Volvo S60 Priced, More Details Revealed

Volvo Canada has released pricing on the very stylish 2011 S60 and it will start at $45,450. That’s a lot of dough, but remember this is the top of the line T6. When compared the BMW’s 335i, the S60 T6 is a full 5 grand cheaper. Less powerful trim levels are likely to follow down the line as well. Volvo has a habit of introducing the top of the line trim levels first.

The T6 will get a turbocharged inline six cylinder engine capable of producing 300 horsepower and 325 pound feet of torque. Since the S60 has always been front wheel drive, that is an excellent recipe for torque steer, so to combat that, Volvo is making all-wheel drive standard on the T6. Sounds pretty sweet, right?

Well, here’s the bad news. Volvo has no plans of offering a maual transmission with this set up, at least not initially. That means it’s up to the consumer to make a  fuss about it and demand that a manual option will be available down the line. That’s what happened with the previous generation M5, remember? It was initially offered with automatic only, but then everyone complained and BMW then fitted it with a manual.

On top of all that, you’re going to get all the safety stuff that Volvo is known for including Volvo’s City Safety which is capable of stopping the vehicle by itself if it detects and immanent crash. This technology was first introduced on the XC60.

[Volvo Canada]

This is What the New Volvo S60 Should Have Been

Well, not exactly like this, we mean mechanically it should have been like this.

To eleborate, the pic you see above is Volvo’s entry into the Belgian Touring Car Championship starting on April 11th. It shares very little with the production 2011 S60 sedan. The S60 racer is going to get a V6  which will produce 410 horsepower,  6 speed manual transmission and it will be rear wheel drive. Yup, the civilianized version should defintely have this set up.

Still, the new S60 can supposedly hold its own, but we’ll reserve judgement on that until we try one out for ourselves.

The S60 Racer will be Volvo’s first crack at the Belgian Touring Car Championship which includes two 90 minute heats and a 12 hour endurance race.

Volvo V60 Caught Completely Naked

Volvo has recently announced that starting in 2011, the V70 wagon would no longer be sold in the United States. Although they have not confirmed the same fate for the V70 in our market yet, it is also expected to get the axe. Volvo only sold 1800 units in the States last year. The XC70 on the other hand has been doing much better and it will try to fill the V70′s shoes. The V70 will continue on in Europe.

But those who prefer their wagons to be at a normal height, i.e not jacked up like the XC70, don’t need to fret as the V60 is going to take the V70′s place.

For the first time ever, Volvo has let the V60 out and about without any comouflage whatsoever – very unusual for any automaker, but especially unusual for a European automaker. They tend to be quite secretive about new upcoming models.

Anyway, we can see that the V60 is basically going to be a wagon version of the S60 sedan. The lines are quite nice for a wagon. It’s very sleek, it has a high belt line and and classic Volvo tail lights.

The V60 is expected to get the same 300 horsepower and 325 pound foot torque that the  S60 T6 will get, and other engine variants are rumoured.

Check the jump for a rear view shot.

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Video: 2011 Volvo S60

Do you like a man in sunglasses that wears a blutooth earpiece? Do you like it when he gets into a sleek new car that no one owns yet and starts driving it aggressively? Do you like it when he drives it down an unusually well lit tunnel then bursts out the other end into road that seemingly has no traffic at all to impede his aggressive driving behaviour? Do you like it when the road suddenly turns into a desert so the man can start power sliding said new car all over the place? Do you like it when all of this happens to the sound of dramatic choir voices and string instruments in the background?

Then you’re going to love Volvo’s new promo video for the brand new 2011 S60 sedan! Check it out above

Volvo to be Sold to Geely for $1.8 billion?

Just as soon as reports came in of the sale of Saab,  reports came in just as quickly for a sale of Saab’s rival, Volvo.

Chinese brand Geely has been rumoured to be the preferred bidder of Volvo for quite some time now and it looks as though they are closer to acquiring the premium brand from Ford. And all it will cost them is $1.8 billion -a bargain!

You see, Ford purchased Volvo just over a decade ago to the tune of $6.25 billion. That’s over $4 billion lost in just eleven years. In all that time, it has been said that Volvo failed to be profitable to Ford, hence the reason of the sale.

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