The Cyan Racing P1800 looks ice cool sliding in Swedish snow
As ice storms cause chaos on U.S. roads, far away in Sweden they know how to have serious winter fun. Cyan Racing took its perfect P1800 to the country’s north for a test session on snow-packed roads and frozen lakes and filmed the whole thing for your viewing delight. Cue cool rooster tails from the rear tires, an incredible cacophony of engine noise, and plenty of opposite lock.
Cyan Racing chief engineer Mattias Evensson grew up in the Åre region, and clearly honed his driving skills in the harsh winters as he drifts the car with consummate ease between high snow banks.
“What really struck me from this expedition was that the car is so easy to drive and that you do not need to provoke it to get it where you want,” says Evensson. “All of the properties that we have tried to achieve were almost amplified by driving it on the low grip of snow and ice. The basic concept of the car seems to work really well, it does not matter that much if you are on a bone-dry racing circuit, a wet and twisty country road or on the crisp ice here in northern Sweden. You still feel confident and in control. I would say this concept has somewhat been lost along the way for the performance cars of today. For us, this is returning back to basics.”
If you need a refresher, the Volvo P1800 Cyan is a rest0mod built by a race team to be a pure driver’s car. Weighing less than 2200 pounds, the car is powered by a turbocharged four-cylinder motor with 420 hp, a dog-leg manual gearbox, and absolutely no driver aids. In our review, Hagerty contributor Ben Barry said the car “is a lesson in how to dial both communication and sublime balance into a chassis; it’s just so deliciously throttle-steerable. In fact, it’s when this car starts to slide that you truly appreciate just how beautifully set up and thought out this entire vehicle is.”
At $500,000 it’s a lot to pay, but we struggle to think of a car that looks cooler as it drifts through the snow.