When Christian Dahl of Swedish competition tuners Polestar built the prototype Polestar S60, it was as a private commission for wealthy client who wanted a Swedish car that could show an M5 the finger.
What he got was a 375kW, three-litre Volvo turbo-six with lowered Ohlins suspension, all-wheel drive and enough street-smart attitude to start its own record label.
Dahl got his start building Volvos for the British Touring Car series in the 1990s (remember Rickard Rydell in the V70 station wagon?) and still considers himself a Volvo specialist. He does a mean street-legal kit for the C30, and churns out a steady stream of Volvo-based specials for rallying, ice racing and production-based formulas.
But that barking mad, pale blue S60 just refuses to go away.
Dahl said at the time that he would be willing to make a small batch of replicas for sale through Volvo dealers if the numbers were right, and Volvo UK managing director Nick Connor has said he is sure there is a market for them in Britain, even at the astronomical prices he would have to charge.
And this is where it gets hairy. At a projected retail of more than £100 000 (R1.27 million) apiece, the Polestar S60 would be purely a marketing exercise, in a very, very limited edition with Volvo UK making little - if any - profit on each car.
Which gives you some idea of what the first one cost to develop.
Connor accepts that with Volvo in survival and consolidation mode under its new Chinese owners, motorsport in general and touring cars in particular are very far down on the agenda, and that a limited-edition, loss-making sports sedan at a supercar price will a very hard sell to cautious Volvo bean-counters - but he's not giving up.
Volvo UK, he says is “in serious discussion with Polestar to try and make the S60 a reality”.
Just imagine what a marketing stroke it would be if you could buy, off the showroom floor, a Volvo that could spank an M5 and humiliate just about anything from Affalterbach.
Connor knows that. Here's hoping he can convince Volvo's Chinese bosses.