If I asked you to think of a few synonyms for Volvo, we both know what they’re likely to be – boxy, boring, old man’s car, but safe. I’d then have to point out that for the most part those descriptors are no longer valid, for the staff at Volvo have ritually burned their 70′s ABBA LPs, loaded the latest beats by Swedish House Mafia onto their corporate flash drives and are consequently stamping out some inspired motor vehicles.

The Volvo C30 is not the latest example of the company’s progressive new character, but the R-Design and Polestar performance add-ons are. It’s a transformation that is best summed up by the mother and her toddler who I trundled past at 3 km/h while navigating a speed bump one very lazy Saturday afternoon. “Look out for my son!”, she vocalised in no uncertain terms, as I idled passed, clutch pedal depressed and foot resting on the brake. Reeling in confusion, as most males usually do when blindsided by the fairer sex, I missed the opportunity to defend myself against, well, like most males I wasn’t sure exactly, but if it weren’t for my stunned silence, I’d have calmly reassured her that there was no possible danger as I was piloting the automotive equivalent of Florence Nightingale, a Volvo. But then it hit me… like a caterpillar to a butterfly, Volvo are reinventing themselves and if you didn’t notice them before, you will now.

The C30 has been with us since 2007 and while it would be logical to brand the two-door, four-seater a ‘hatchback’, as with every manufacturer’s quest to be different, Volvo prefer to call it a coupe, hence the ‘C’ nomenclature. The C30 received a facelift in 2010 and was given the elongated clear-lens headlights, redesigned front bumper, along with a wide range of interior trim choices that we see in Volvo’s product catalog today. The biggest news was, however, the introduction of the C30 R-Design.

The R-Design’s most noticeable features are the colour-coded body kit with deeper bumpers and side skirts, giving the impression of the car being lowered by much more than the actual 10 mm. Within each wheel arch sits a five-spoke, 18-inch wheel, shod in 215/45 profile rubber. The R-Design styling is rounded off with a rear spoiler, a pair of chromed tipped tailpipes, as well a ‘R-Design’ badge on the grille. The bolt-on goodies give the R a sporty and aggressive stance, with perhaps the only reservation being that the bumpers aren’t single piece units, as you find on similarly drawn competitors, such as the Volkswagen Scirocco R, Renault Megane RS or Ford Focus RS, which would give the R-Design a more homogeneous look. Still, the C30′s R-Design kit manages to draw the attention of many – from hot hatch drivers, to mothers with their children evidently.

The R-Design package also breathes life into the interior, with the leather covered seats having been given a cream-coloured centre, with sides in dark grey and a ‘R-Design’ emblem embossed on the backrests. The steering wheel, sporty as Volvo say it is, could be a little chunkier and a lot smaller in diameter, but this becomes less obvious the more time you spend behind it. The pedals are aluminium with rubber inserts for added control, with additional nods to sportiness in the form of the leather/aluminum combination trim on the gear lever, R-Design centre stack and panel inserts, as well as blue speedometer and rev counter gauges. The R-Design touches do little to save the cabin from feeling routine, although the monochrome digital display in the centre hang-down and its associated controls are concise and a pleasure to work with.

Both inside and out, the C30 manages to hang on to the tail-end of contemporary cool, but the new S-Series models are leading the charge in Volvo’s evolutionary path and the C30 would do well to follow suit. Recent spy photos rumoured to be of the Volvo C30 five-door are our earliest indication of the next step in this regard.

So what does the ‘Polestar’ reference mean for the C30? Well, Polestar has a long and successful competition history with Volvo, having developed and raced the 850, S40, and S60 models. In 2009, Polestar won the Swedish Touring Car Championship (STCC) for Volvo Cars with the C30, a car they developed completely from scratch. The close relationship around product development between the companies has lead to the introduction of Polestar Performance Engine Optimisation Products as a complement to Volvo’s standard cars. Polestar performance upgrades are the only such Volvo-approved upgrades and therefore do not affect the original warranty of the vehicle. The Polestar upgrade is a R10 000 cost option and is available for most Volvo models from 2005 to-date, meaning it can be ordered with a new vehicle or retrofitted at your local dealer.

The standard C30 T5 produces 169 kW at 5 000 r/min and 320 Nm of torque between 1 500 – 5 000 r/min. The spread of torque is already particularly impressive, but even more so with the Polestar upgrade that takes power to 184 kW and torque to 370 Nm. Volvo don’t mention any change to the car’s benchmark 0 – 100 km/h sprint time of 6.7 seconds, but the additional power certainly feels like it is enough to shave a tenth or two from this figure. It’s a similar story with the fuel consumption, with Volvo claiming that it too remains unchanged at 9.0 L/100km, but alas, this figure remains an enigma in the real world, where I never saw below 10 L/100km.

The C30 T5 Polestar’s 5-cylinder, 2.5-litre engine has so much torque on-hand that you can comfortably pull off in second gear if ever you wanted to. The mid-range pull is strong enough that rather than let the revs run all the way to the 6 500 r/min redline, you’ll make swifter progress by shifting through the 6-speed manual ‘box a little earlier and dropping the revs back into its mid-range sweet spot. As a result, the C30 T5 Polestar doesn’t feel blisteringly quick in the upper rev-range, but a glance at the speedo will confirm otherwise. In addition to the Volkswagen Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST beating performance, the 5-cylinder also emits a sonorous off-beat soundtrack and throaty burble through its twin exhausts. It’s not all praise however, as a noticeable level of turbo-lag and a throttle that delivers 70% of the power with just 30% of pedal travel, means swift acceleration is delayed momentarily until the boost pressure has risen, where after small throttle inputs amount to tens of meters of progress at the slightest provocation.

Fortunately one doesn’t need to ‘lift-off’ too much when it comes to cornering in the C30 T5 R-Design, as the sport chassis has been given some important updates. The car’s ride height has been reduced by 10 mm, the springs are 30 percent stiffer, the anti-roll bars are stiffer and stiffer mono-tube dampers have also been fitted. The steering is the best I’ve experienced on any Volvo, that is to say, while it doesn’t match the feel of some hot-hatch rivals, it does respond well, provides good turn-in – thanks to a 10 percent quicker steering ratio than the standard C30 range, together with stiffer bushings – and ultimately equates to a level of confidence that adds to the driving enjoyment.

So while the C30 T5 R-Design may not be the freshest Volvo in the range, it still manages to hold some contemporary charm to which the Polestar Performance upgrade adds definite punch. Boy-racers should beware, while yummy-mummies will stare.

What we like…

• Mid-range muscle together with great engine and exhaust note.
• Interior ergonomics and quality sound system (part of the ‘Plus’ package).

What we would like…

• Height adjustable seat belt so your collarbone doesn’t get ground away.
• A warning signal so you can’t leave the headlights on.
• A refreshed C30 to bring styling up-to-date with the S60, V60 and XC60.

Images via CarAdvice and CarsGuide