Scott McLaughlin’s outspoken and occasionally blue language on television and to the media is not a concern for Volvo – in fact the company believes his candour is probably helping the company lift its staid local image, while his on-track performances are leading to a spike in sales.

The 20-year old has been competitive from the opening race of the season in his V8-powered Valvoline-backed S60, winning a race at the Formula One Rolex Australia Grand Prix and then breaking through for his first points-paying victory at the Perth 400.

He has also won plenty of fans with his positive character and enthusiasm, especially the now famous ‘jandal’ comment.

But McLaughlin has also dropped the f-bomb on live TV and more recently labelled Kiwi compatriot Shane van Gisbergen an ‘arsehole’ after some hard and controversial racing in the Perth 400.

However Matt Braid, the managing director of the factory-owned local distributor, Volvo Car Australia, argues those comments are not negatives for Volvo and may in fact help its image.

“We very much understand and respect that we are a premium brand and want to behave a certain way, but we also want to be realistic and open to the Australian public and be less clinical and I think he provides that edge naturally,” Braid told v8supercars.com.au.

“Whatever he says comes from him direct and comes naturally. There is nothing manufactured and I think that is a very good value that he provides that we admire and we believe that reflects on us as a brand to a degree as well.”

Braid, who was a vital driving force behind Volvo’s multi-million dollar investment in V8 Supercars, is adamant entering the S60 into the Championship in 2014 in cooperation with Swedish engine developer Polestar and Garry Rogers Motorsport – and the promotion and activation that has gone with it – is responsible for a big sales increase for the prestige sedan.

Sales of the road-going S60 are up 62.5 per cent year-on-year to the end of April according to official VFACTS sales figures, with 234 rolling out of dealerships.

“The sales results in VFACTS are the end results,” said Braid. “But what we are seeing in monitoring is general enquiry on S60 in our dealerships, through our websites and all our other links, test drives and ultimately orders and sales.

“Each week we are monitoring that and we are seeing a clear distinction in the way our enquiry curve on S60 tracked prior to racing and how it has tracked post Clipsal, which is very interesting.”

VCA has backed the strong on-track performances with high profile television advertising and billboards and has used selected race meetings to conduct guest entertainment. McLaughlin and teammate Robert Dahlgren have also been involved in drive days and road car promotions.

“We definitely targeted S60 because we see a volume opportunity for the brand in Australia for our non-SUV vehicles, particularly S60 given the size of that segment,” Braid said.

“So the racing program is being built around creating credibility and opportunity for the S60 and greater awareness.”

“While we focussed on S60 we hoped there would be some good positive vibes flow to the rest of the range and the brand and that is clearly the case because we are seeing customers come in and buy other cars and they are definitely talking about seeing the brand on TV and V8 Supercars racing.”

Braid confirmed VCA is planning to further ramp-up its V8 Supercars involvement with many potential ideas to be pursued.

“There are all sorts of opportunities available to us to look at how we leverage the association further with the team, the drivers, and the relationship between the road car and the race car,” he said.

VCA has already started promoting Polestar’s role in developing the new family of Drive-E four-cylinder road-car engines that have just gone on-sale in the S60, V60 and XC60.

While unwilling to divulge the details of the company’s future activation plans, Braid confirmed updates to the TVC were in the pipeline in the wake of the wins.

“We are discussing that at the moment,” he said. “That will evolve, we are not just going to make one commercial for the year and sit on it.

“Now we have our Drive-E engine and victory on the track that allows us to approach this and ask ‘what can we demonstrate or say differently than we currently are?’”

Braid also made it clear the S60’s on-track competitiveness and wins had raised expectations for more outstanding results as the year goes on.

“My view is we must go forward and keep moving and that means more wins, better results in the Championship and strong results and performances in the upcoming Pirtek Enduro Cup as well.”