Driving my Polestar 2 on a race track!
The Tamworth EV Expo
I recently attended the Tamworth EV & Classic Car Expo1 in Tamworth (New Hampshire), which was held at Club Motorsports and hosted by the Tamworth Energy Committee. This was about 65 miles from me in the mountains of New Hampshire and I was really looking forward to it as I was signed up to display my Polestar 2. I was a little concern because the weather looked somewhat iffy, but it ended up being a great day that was mostly sunny with temperatures in the mid-60s.
However, there were certainly a lot of black flies that came out whenever the breeze died down!
After checking in about 7:50am or so, I was directed to park in what I would soon find out was the “Lap Car” parking area. After backing my car in, I got to work getting it all shined up using Meguiar's Ultimate Waterless Wash & Wax (my favorite way to quickly get a car shined up, as long as it is not already too dirty). It’s been raining a lot here in New England in May so my car was rather spotted with some road grime.
After I finished I was able to chat with other owners, the first being the owner of a Tesla Model S Performance in a lovely blue with a matte wrap. As we were chatting one of the organizers asked if we would be offering test rides in our cars.
I immediately said I did not plan to, but both he and the Tesla owner encouraged me to try it. They said the track was absolutely gorgeous and the ride was more like a parade around the track, with speeds unlikely to exceed 50mph.
Since I had come all that way (about a 1.5 hour drive), I figured I would give it a shot. And boy am I glad a did!
I pulled my car into the “lap line” and ended up being beside another Polestar 2. While we were all waiting for other cars to show up, I chatted with him. He had a 2022 Polestar 2 in Magnesium and it looked really nice. My Thunder color is way better, though. I’d say Magnesium is much closer to white than it is to gray.
This fellow had replaced the gloss black center console with an incredibly slick-looking carbon fiber panel. It looked great with the black ash interior. He said he only paid about $40 or $50 for it, but I’ve only found it only for about $130. Rather than replacing the panel, some people instead remove and wrap it, which is much, much cheaper.
The way the “lap rides” worked is the cars would line up and people that wanted rides would congregate around them and pick available cars to ride in. I ended up giving a ride to a nice gentleman who came to the show with a friend in a Porsche Taycan. He also was kind enough to record a video of a lap around the track while I was driving, which is at the end of this post.
For our drive, we got to do three laps. The track itself is about 2.5 miles with lots of turns, hills and the most amazing view of the New Hampshire scenery.
I ended up driving on the track two times. I’d say the fastest I ever got up to was about 60mph or so and the only way to do this was to leave a big gap with the car in front of you so you could floor it on a straightaway. It certainly helped give people the thrill of EV acceleration!
It was quite a contrast to later in the morning when they closed the track to the show and started letting members with their ICE vehicles on it. The track went from cars driving in silence to noisy roars of engines.
Two times on the track was more than enough excitement for me so I spent the rest of the show talking with other EV owners and answering questions about my Polestar 2 for show visitors.
There were always a lot of questions about my Polestar 2 as, for the most part, few knew what it was. Almost no one had heard of Polestar and even fewer knew that is was related to Volvo.
By the way, if you’re thinking about a Polestar 2, you might find my Used Polestar 2 Buying Guide helpful.
It turned out there were actually three Polestar 2 cars at the show as later in the in the morning I met another owner with a 2022 Polestar 2 (Snow) that was helping to promote Greenwave, the used EV car dealer in New Hampshire. We had a great conversation as the show was winding down about things we loved about our cars and also about how horrible Audi dealers can be.
Other cars I was able to see include a Honda Prologue, which I really liked. It was very roomy inside and unlike the Chevy Blazer upon which it is based, it does have Apple CarPlay. One especially cool feature of the Prologue was that its giant panoramic glass roof had a retractable sunshade and could even have a portion of it open as a sunroof! Plus it was a gorgeous blue color, which I always appreciate.
I did check out a Mustang Mach-E, which I like more and more each time I see it. This one was a nice dark (or Forest) green, which blends well with the New England landscape.
There was also a Lucid Air, which was definitely the fanciest car I saw. It’s also much longer than it looks from online photos.
There were of course several Ioniq 5 and 6 vehicles there. I really do like the Ioniq 5, but I wish it were just a tad smaller. I did talk with someone from Eco Auto, another used EV dealer (this one in Massachusetts) who brought these vehicles.
I also talked briefly with Eric, the president of the New England Electric Auto Association. They will be holding some other events in 2025.
I never remember to take enough photos at these things, but it was an amazing amount of fun and I will certainly be back next year!
I have to give a shout-out to Tamworth Energy Committee chair Gabrielle who somehow seemed to be everywhere all at once at the show, talking with people and doing a great job ensuring this show was a success.
This 138 mile round-trip also gave me my best efficiency to date. According the the trip computer, my Polestar 2 got 28.4 kWh/100mi (3.52mi/kWh), which would be a full range of about 264 miles.
And here’s a video of me driving one lap around the track:
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There were few classic cars at this expo. It was mostly EVs.