What they said when the Volvo XC90 was new… (Jan 28 2003)
IMAGINE three tracks modelled in the image of mini Grand Prix circuits complete with pit lane.
You rev the turbocharged 2.5 litre engine of your Volvo S60 R performance saloon with its 300bhp of thrust and let the clutch out. Within seconds the first bend, a tight right-hander, arrives and the fun really starts.
The reason's simple. This is no ordinary circuit, but a specially crafted area slap bang in the middle of the Baltic Sea - and it's frozen solid. Driving on ice tracks, more than half a metre deep and with a banking of drifted snow on either side, is a rare treat.
And it's something the coastal peoples around Lulea in northern Sweden have available to them for five months of the year. The rest of the time the islanders go into town by boat.
The area consists of 700 islands in a region called Norrbotten, a mere 100 miles from the Arctic Circle. It is also the world's only brackish water archipelago, in other words the salt content of the water is less than three per cent.
Appropriately it was chosen by Volvo to demonstrate the extreme driving abilities of its new XC90 four wheel drive SUV.
On the one hand the steel and engineering port of Lulea develops and produces safety components for Volvo cars. On the other, well where more novel than a frozen sea to launch both the performance S60 and V70 variants plus the XC90, a model the Swedes believe to be "the first of the next generation of SUVs".
Safety is and always will be a major priority for Volvo. In the case of the R concepts, which go on sale here in July, there's permanent four-wheel drive and an active chassis which instantly adapts the character of the car to the driving situation.
And trying to control the S60 on sheet ice polished by two hours of constant use tests it all to the maximum. The result is a fantastic experience, something both educational and exciting.
A quick switch to track two and the new three-litre 272bhp T6 version of the XC90. Get yourself into trouble on one of this circuit's bends and an anti-skid aid called DSTC kicks in.
This 'Dynamic Stability and Traction Control' system works by shutting off the power and braking as many wheels as necessary until the car understeers and regains stability.
The main thrust of the event was to introduce the latest petrol variant of the XC90 ahead of its on-sale date in March.
If this range is unfamiliar to you, well it bridges the gap between off-roader and people carrier, something comfortably achieved through a seven-seat capability and clever interior layout.
It means that whether you opt for a five or seven seat configuration, both the second and third rows can be folded down to create an entirely flat luggage compartment floor.
The words XC actually stand for Cross Country, and that's precisely where the Volvo tour took us via main roads, snow-covered forest tracks, the Baltic Sea and a demanding off-road course.
At no point could I find anything to genuinely criticise. Naturally the test cars were equipped with studded winter tyres, but the all-wheel drive can cope extremely well with steep hills and moguls, even if its favoured terrain is the tarmac.
With that in mind the Volvo is sure to prove a fierce rival to more established executive SUVs like BMW's X5, the Mercedes M-Class and Jeep Grand Cherokee.
It is a safe car, very practical, beautifully built and appointed, masculine as opposed to macho, and with an entry level price of £28,400 for the D5 diesel automatic it also undercuts the cheapest oil-burning opposition by £600, and the most affordable X5 by £4,600.
The D5 is in the showrooms now, the T6 - with four-speed Geartronic auto transmission – follows in March and a six-speed version of the diesel is due towards the end of the year.
Words: Mike Torpey
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