How we built our all-action Arctic Circle collection

Before becoming an EV manufacturer, Polestar was at the sharp end of Scandinavian motorsport. In fact, long before premium SUVs and performance fastbacks, the only place you’d find a Polestar was on the racetrack—and they were rather good at it. Accolades and trophies piled up along the way, culminating in the 2017 FIA World Touring Car Championship title. Since then, Polestar designers and engineers have worked tirelessly to infuse this racing heritage into high-performance road cars. But that doesn’t mean they’ve left the racetrack behind.

Atop a frozen airfield, some 800 meters above sea level, a special collection of one-off Polestar cars is set to hit the track—specifically, the icy trails at Austria’s Zell am See airport—for a celebration of high-octane four-wheeled fun at one of the hottest tickets on the motorsport cultural calendar: the 2025 FAT International Ice Race. 

Polestar’s show cars for the 2025 event are a sight to behold. Lifted, wearing specialised ice racing tyres, and given distinctive white and yellow coats, the Arctic Circle collection is sure to cause a stir in Austria. One of the people behind their bold looks is Nahum Escobedo, Polestar Exterior Design Manager, and he’s rather pleased about where his latest creations are going: “This is something I’ve always been a fan of. We always show things with the intent of doing something; we don’t stay static.”

Making a statement

Nahum is aware that the FAT Ice Race comes with a culture surrounding it, and that Polestar might be a touch different from the norm there, but that’s part of the fun. Each Polestar has its own character, he says, and part of his job was to enhance that character for ice racing. Up to 20″ wheels with chunky tyres is a good start, but what more could be done? Nahum notes that in their natural state, the Polestar 2, Polestar 3, and Polestar 4 are already well-suited for a motorsport event. “You see a lot of manufacturers extend fenders to make the car more aggressive,” he notes. “By their nature, these cars are designed, sculpted, and already have a sporty look.” 

This gave the team the opportunity to play with graphical elements on the cars. OZ Racing wheels draw your eye to each corner, which, combined with a suspension lift, turns something you can drive the family around into a rally car. Then there’s the head-turning swathe of yellow adorning the front of the cars. “I think yellow is quite a confident colour; it's an energetic colour. There is a vibrancy that seems to fit this event nicely. We've been very particular about how we've used our Swedish Gold in the past. Normally, it’s only been used on smaller details, like the seatbelts or Brembo callipers, but this time we decided to go even bolder, with our yellow and white livery," explains Maria Uggla, Head of Colour and Materials at Polestar.

For a manufacturer associated with more muted tones, if you’re going to make an impact, yellow is a good way to go. One thing that hasn’t changed about the cars is their performance. There’s already plenty of fun to be had in the Polestars you see on the road today. 

Take the Polestar 3 Long range Dual motor. Computer-controlled torque vectoring, dual chamber active air suspension, a staggered wheel setup with wider rims at the rear—these are cars built to be enjoyed. The Polestar 4 is not to be sniffed at either. Air curtains below the headlights, rear side aero blades, and flush glazing and door handles are the types of aerodynamics that result in our fastest car to date (0-100km/h in 3.8 seconds). Then there is the Polestar 2. An asynchronous front motor, permanent magnet rear motor, and silicon carbide inverter all help increase efficiency and torque, making for a responsive, assertive drive.

Peak performance

For Nahum, the cars were a challenge to design, but perhaps not in the way you might think. “As a designer, the first thing that I would ordinarily want to do is create openings and vents, and I’d want to change certain elements because, of course, you want to make something unique, more catered to this event. But when we started the process, we realised the cars didn’t need many updates.” The key was to keep the cars pure. No matter how much Nahum and the Polestar Design team wanted to give in to their design instincts, they needed to step back and let the purity that’s there do the talking. It helps that the cars—having been engineered within the Arctic Circle by a team led by Joakim Rydholm (a Swedish rally driver with over 30 years of motorsport experience and Polestar’s Head of Chassis Development)—are more than fit for purpose in the first place.

It is, of course, one thing to design an "Arctic" car—quite another to build it. Luckily, having introduced the original Polestar 2 ‘Arctic Circle’ back in 2022, Polestar’s engineers know a thing or two about the cold. With winter proving grounds lying within the Arctic Circle where daily winter temperatures can dip below -30°C, Jokkmokk is where all Polestar cars go to earn their Scandinavian stripes.

It’s a gruelling process, with every aspect of the car under scrutiny. Despite the limited daylight, the days are long as teams of specialists fine-tune dampers and adjust recent modifications. It’s time-consuming, often arduous work, but eventually, after weeks in the snow, Joakim and company are happy with what they see. "These cars are ready," he says, smiling.

What is the F.A.T. International Ice Race?

The FAT Ice Race can trace its origins to the early 1950s. The first event was held in 1952 in honour of Dr. Ing. h.c. Ferdinand Porsche’s death (founder of Porsche) and was originally called the Professor Ferdinand Porsche Memorial Race. An impromptu affair, it saw all manner of Porsches flinging themselves around an improvised ice track on the lake at Zell am See. The race was an instant hit, and was held annually until a tragic accident in 1974 meant it could no longer continue. 

After a 45-year hiatus, Ferdinand Porsche’s great-grandson, Ferdi, resurrected the event as the GP Ice Race in 2019. Though the team didn’t know what to expect, it immediately proved popular with motorsport and winter enthusiasts alike. COVID-19’s arrival put the race on hold for three more years, but it returned in 2024 with a new name, under a new umbrella, as the FAT Ice Race. The ‘International’ in the name indicates that the organisation will spread itself wider than Austria, hosting FAT International events all over the world—and it’s already done so in Aspen, Colorado, USA.

With the event continuing to grow, Zell am See is quickly becoming a staple destination for the motoring glitterati in search of adrenaline-fueled alpine action. For designers like Nahum, however, occasions like this are often more emotive. “These events always remind me of being in design school. There, you hear stories about Goodwood, Pebble Beach, and F.A.T. Ice from teachers, all designers themselves. Hearing about them is one thing, but it’s not until you get there, experience the cars, the crowds, and the energy that you truly start to understand it. Going to the ice… I have goosebumps.”

The Polestar Arctic Circle collection will make its public debut on February 1st at the FAT International Ice Race at Zell am See Airport in Austria.