First Drive Review
In a world gone completely catawampus with Porsche sport-utes and Cadillac pickups, Volvo barely deserves mention for this playful tug at its own starchy brand.
Okay, it's more like a violent jerk. The evangelists of the "All Safety All the Time" gospel submit for consideration to their slightly phobic fan base the S60R sedan and V70R wagon, each with 300 horsepower, all-wheel drive, Brembo four-piston calipers, and a choice of a five-speed automatic or six-speed stick. Volvo is bringing steak tartare to its normally vegan potluck.
Apparently, the vegans in question quite like the taste of red meat. Remember the bumblebee yellow 240-hp 850 T-5R wagon of 1995? The company was only supposed to build 1000, but Volvoistas stormed the dealerships, and 7500 were served.
Those who were turned away have sat out a nine-year wait for the replacement R. Chalk up the delay to the company's rigidly conservative culture, says Lars Erik Lundin, vice-president and general manager of Volvo's Monitoring and Concept Center. Selling Volvo's safety-image-obsessed management on a hot rod is always a challenge. "Boring is something we're known for," Lundin sighs.
At least the S60R and the V70R start from a nonboring baseline. With its broad shoulders and arcing roofline the S60 was "a little bit against Volvo philosophy in that it put design over packaging," says Lundin. Last year Volvo offered the Haldex electrohydraulic all-wheel-drive system, and this year the R debuts.
On a brief romp over mountain roads and around the turns of Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France, a V70R with the five-speed automatic proved the new Volvo has plenty of protein. The engine plumbs thick torque to a chassis that knows just where to squirt it in corners, especially on a rain-drenched track. The steering is light, but the turn-in is quick and the car rotates surprisingly hard in turns. The brakes feel as if they could stop time.
The biggest complaint is that the heavy boost builds smoothly but blows off with a rush, leaving the engine gasping. Volvo says it's still working to smooth the R's Superman/Clark Kent transitions.
To make the R, Volvo did thorough rework on the cast-aluminum DOHC 20-valve, 2.5-liter turbocharged in-line five that is the 208-hp base engine of the new XC90 sport-ute. "To get 300 horsepower out of 2.5 liters, you need a lot of air," says Lars Johansson, engine project leader.
