A little while ago we brought you news that Volvo was set to enter the Australian V8 Supercar series for 2014, making use of the S60. Now Polestar Racing has unleashed a video showing off the unique noise of its beautifully crafted 5 litre V8 engine packing 650 bhp.

Volvo could have chosen the easy route and picked an engine supplied from the USA, as both Ford and Holden do, but instead decided to go their own route and have Polestar specifically develop one of their road car engines into a racer. Taking the 4.4 litre V8 usually found in the S80 saloon or XC90 SUV, Polestar have bored it out to 5.0 litres, added some lovely individual carbon fibre throttle bodies for each cylinder and swapped it from its usual transverse mounting to longitudinal. Oh, and more than doubled the horsepower; taking it from 311 bhp to a massive 650 bhp instead, with torque rising from 325 lb-ft to a thumping 487 lb-ft in the S60 racer.

With a 7,500 rpm rev limit, the Polestar V8 is also rather more rev hungry that the stock engine, but also has a rather special sound compared to others in the Aussie Supercar field. Most competition V8s run a 90-degree angle between the two banks of cylinders. Volvo’s unit is more compact, with a narrower 60-degree angle. The result is a noise more howling than the usual rumble, but still enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up! If you don’t believe us, have a listen here. Make sure you turn the volume up first):

We like the very Scandinavian looking guy with the beard in the background; he looks like a man who makes engines with lots of power. Which, given the success Polestar have had in the various guises of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship in recent years, seems entirely plausible.

Either way, we’ll get to see just how good the S60 V8 is on track in a few days with the first official test in Sydney on the 15th February. After that, it’ll be a few short weeks until the first race of the season with the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide. EngageSportMode will be watching with interest to see if the Swedes can keep their cool Down Under.