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Motoring<br />
The car itself feels nailed to the ground,<br />
thanks to an all-wheel drive system that<br />
splits power intelligently between the four<br />
wheels. Under normal circumstances, all<br />
the power goes to the front wheels, but<br />
once things get sketchy, it sends some<br />
to the rear wheels to balance things up.<br />
Unlike most systems, it’s also engineered<br />
to remain neutrally balanced<br />
when on the limit of adhesion, which<br />
makes it a more predictable car to handle<br />
under extreme conditions.<br />
Ah yes, those extreme conditions.<br />
Creeping onto a frozen lake is an<br />
unnerving experience, but once I’d been<br />
given a thorough safety briefing (“don’t<br />
hit any other cars!”) and gone through<br />
an exhaustive training session (“there are<br />
some cones, go round them”), I was let<br />
loose on the 50cm thick ice sheet.<br />
For the purposes of genuine consumer<br />
journalism, I left the computer aids<br />
switched on, which means there’s traction<br />
control, stability control, automatic allwheel<br />
drive and emergency autonomous<br />
braking. The surprising result is that it<br />
was possible to drive reasonably sensibly<br />
around the lake, the car stepping and<br />
braking individual wheels once it had<br />
decided that things were getting too<br />
enthusiastic. Point proven – the car is<br />
inherently safe.<br />
Switch everything off and it’s a different<br />
beast, the tail end of the car swinging<br />
to angles even beyond 90 degrees, yet<br />
remaining controllable, which is impressive<br />
considering the 5m long pendulum it<br />
becomes. Yes, to get the most out of it you<br />
need to know what’s going on with weight<br />
transfer, steering angles, grip coefficients<br />
and such like, but any loon could go<br />
out and have a huge amount of fun at<br />
Sweden’s natural test track.<br />
It might not quite represent a slippy road<br />
in the suburbs of Cambridge, but it’s<br />
reassuring to know that the car will look<br />
after you every bit as well there as it would<br />
in Åre.<br />
MODEL TESTED:<br />
Volvo V90 Cross Country<br />
D5 PowerPulse AWD<br />
• Top speed: 140mph<br />
• 0-62mph: 7.5 seconds<br />
• Fuel economy: 53.3mpg<br />
• CO2 emissions: 139 g/km<br />
• Power: 235PS (232bhp)<br />
<strong>Velvet</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | <strong>March</strong> <strong>2017</strong> 97
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