A pair of insane K-Pax Racing Volvo S60 GTs could be yours
By Odin's beard, they're for sale!
By Marshall Pruett
The decision by K-Pax Racing to put its pair of Nordic demons up for sale seems massively irresponsible and mildly
brilliant at the same time.
Their flame-spitting, all-wheel-driving, turbo-inline five-cylinder Volvo S60 GTs have terrorized the Pirelli World Challenge series for the past few years, winning
championships along the way. With Volvo's exit from the series, K-Pax Racing owner Jim Haughey finds himself with two of the wildest road-racing
creations in decades and no backing to run them.
It's hard to put an exact number on such things, but I'd wager these S60s have received at least one million dollars' worth of R&D and trick technology.
Want to scare the living daylights out of your friends at the next Coffee and Cars gathering? Determined to show Ken Block a thing or two about Gymkhana
videos? Want to try to make a sub-10-minute run at this year's Pikes Peak International Hill Climb? Feel like upsetting a lot of people at a Time Attack?
Or do you crave Pro Racing glory and have the means to continue running the cars in PWC?
Pro teams with cutting-edge racing cars tend to keep them in the hands of other pro racers—they only become available for other activities once they're
well past their sell-by date, but Haughey and S60 builder Bob Raub are ready to part ways with their prized GT cars without restrictions.
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For all the same reasons you don't put Bengal tigers among the goats and lambs at the petting zoo, the thought of unleashing these purebred race cars
wherever you want sounds like a lot of Vine videos with '#swedishhooning' hashtags may be in order.
"Without all the weight and other restrictions the cars were made to carry by the series, you could push 650 hp without a lot of effort and get down in
the 2900- to 3000-pound range," said Raub, whose Colorado-based 3R Automotive ran the K-Pax effort. "You can take more weight out of them, but with the
power and traction they have, weight was never a real issue."
"There aren't many competitive AWD road-racing cars in the world let alone the United States, so it's one of those things where you can basically pick
what you want to do with them and go do it. They aren't like a little formula car where you can only race them on certain tracks and in certain series. If
you want to do World Challenge or Pikes Peak or Club Racing … And you can go drag racing with them, if you want. There's not much out there than can beat
these cars."
According to Raub, putting a price tag on each S60 has been a painstaking process, and asking for a final number delivers a hazy response.
"We're still trying to put a figure on each car, but I'd guess something over $200,000 is where we'll land, but they're for sale, and as you know, you can
set a price, but they'll sell for whatever they sell for."
SEE PHOTOS: Photos: Volvo V60 and S60 Polestar
"Each one has $50,000 in Mo TeC electronics alone: all the usual data system stuff, launch control, anti-lag, and everything else to get the most out of an
AWD turbo. Everything from the engines to the front and rear posi diffs, the transmission, the axles, the brakes, the body, the aerodynamics—a fortune has
been spent turning these cars into champions."
If the fearsome GT S60s are too extreme for your comfort level, K-Pax is also parting ways with its mid-range PWC C30 touring cars. Put down $68K for
one (or $125K for both), and these baby Volvo race cars can be yours.