A POLE star is one of the heavens' brightest objects and lies directly overhead when viewed from the North or South Pole - apparently.

So it should be no surprise that Volvo use the term for its S60 sports saloon. Wherever its' viewed from, it is clearly one of Volvo's brightest stars, with stunning looks and breathtaking performance.

The S60 Polestar fills a performance gap in the Volvo range where rivals Audi, Mercedes and BMW have theIr AMG, R and M series respectively.

However, the car I tried was not the full-blown petrol-powered performance model, but one powered by Volvo's five-cylinder turbo-charged 2.5-litre diesel which has been optimised by the Polestar team.

In R-Design trim it looks sleek, but powerful, with a sloping profile which bulges powerfully in all the right places, has attractive light clusters and sits on cool, five-spoke 18-inch alloys.

Only twin exhausts and a modest Polestar badge give a clue to what lurks under the bonnet.

There's plenty in there with the smooth diesel's 215bhp tweaked by Polestar to 230bhp. This gives hot acceleration and fantastic torque or pulling power throughout all the gear.

It sounds good moving through the slick six-speed gearbox, hitting 60mph in just over seven seconds, before settling down. It is well insulated from wind and road noise, despite the huge tyres and the engine become barely audible.

The tweaked R-Design sporty suspension keeps the car well planted. In fact the handling is terrific. It feels like it is running on rails, when cornering and the ride is firm, without ever being uncomfortable. It is a real driver's car, even with front wheel drive and the even better bit is the economy.

Some heavy motoring, including a trip from the Midlands to North Yorkshire and back, left the car with just over a quarter of tank of juice, making the official, claimed economy of 62.8mpg, for once, not looking a million miles away.

It was particularly impressive on the motorway, but fun too on twisting North Yorkshire roads. The performance and economy are impressive indeed.

In this spec it is a real executive motor and inside it matches anything in its class and surpasses in many cases with it soft leather Alcantara seats, high quality soft touch finish to dash and doors, thick carpets and a well laid out set of controls.

The dash is dominated by a central screen which controls major functions, which can also be accessed from the steering wheel controls.

The sporty theme continues with leather trimmed steering wheel and a smart, single digital speedo dial, where the theme can be set to to three modes, Eco, standard and sport where the display changes colour and information.

The central 'floating' console can look a bit cluttered, but the car is a comfortable place to be, even with its coupe look. Five occupants can be accommodated, four with real comfort while head and legroom is decent enough. Boot space is good with a long rather than deep boot, but spacious enough to cover most needs.

There are a host of bells and whistles including a powered driver's seat and a dimming mirror - as you would expect with a range-topper costing around £35,000 - and plenty of optional extra were added to this model, sending the price way above £40,000. But that's what you tend to get at this end of the market.

It's a Volvo, so it will be as safe as houses with a full range of airbags, traction and stability control.