irishcar.com - Volvo S60 AWD Arctic Adventure

Driving conditions don’t get much more unforgiving than in the north of Norway, and if a car company decides to show off its latest product there, it must have real confidence in it.

That’s just what Volvo have been doing with their AWD version of the S60 saloon, first shown last September at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It’s the first Volvo to use electronically-controlled all-wheel drive, the electronics bit allowing extremely fast and accurate transfers of power between wheels as required from conditions.

The system, which links through the multiplex wiring in the S60 so that it can communicate with and operate other safety systems such as the traction control, will be incorporated on all Volvo AWD cars by the end of this year.

But back to the run, billed the ‘Volvo S60 AWD Arctic Adventure’. And where we drove to on a 500-kilometre round trip yesterday was in fact the most northerly piece of land in Europe, the Northern Cape of Norway. Between that and the North Pole, all there is is some very cold water and an icecap.

We were warned that weather conditions can change ‘very rapidly’ up here, and that proved to be really true, with blue skies changing to full blizzard in a few minutes. The underwheel situation was no less confusing, switching from hard-packed snow to drifts over very short distances.

Back in Ireland, the road surface conditions would close down the country for a month. Here, people just take them as they come ... but, and a very important ‘but’, they don’t take any chances either. So, for instance, along with all the high tech wizardry and a spare can of petrol in the boot, our test cars had a box of matches and two candles in the glove compartment ... to help light ‘survival fires’ if stranded in the white wonderland?

Maybe. Anyway, we also had a bag each in the booth containing Arctic clothing, just in case.

The temperatures weren’t actually the coldest I’ve experiences, ranging from -2deg to -15deg, but with a wind chill factor which could drop that by another 15 or 20degs. The real thing to remember is wear a hat, because most of the body’s heat loss is from the head.

The AWD S60 is powered by Volvo’s 2.5-litre 5-cylinder 200bhp petrol engine, which has a light pressure turbo and full torque over a superb 1800-5000rpm range ... which also helps in smooth driving over icy roads. For those who want the full technicals, the AWD function uses a hydraulic pump driven by the difference in speed between the axles, with a wet multi-plate clutch and a control valve with electronics. Overall it is a much more robust affair than is that of some other makers.

Our route from Alta to the North Cape took us across wintry plain areas, then up along the side of a fjord, with the final 15km done in convoy along a road normally not open this time of year, but which had just been cleared of drifts by a snowplow.

(That’s another thing: they have snowplows working all the time here, and they move very fast. When you see one approaching, you move out of the way, and should also slow down because for a few very long seconds afterwards you can’t see where you’re in a following small snowstorm. The same thing applies to meeting trucks.)

There were also a number of tunnels along the route, which have automatic doors at each end to stop snow from drifting into them. You just drive right up to the door and then if lifts to let you through.

It might seem odd, but we were averaging 50-60mph most of the way, despite the underwheel conditions. Apart from the AWD capability of the car, this was helped by the fact that we were on studded tyres, which make a really big difference to grip. We could also have been on special winter tyres, not quite as effective but which are the minimum that cars in the Scandinavian countries must have if driven between 1 December and 31 March.

Views were quite spectacular, and in ever-changing light conditions, while driving particularly along by the fjord. The sun rises up here this time of the year at around 10.30 and sets two hours later, and in real light terms there’s about four and a half hours of daytime. It gets quite disorienting when you’re driving at 3pm and you’ve already had an hour or so of darkness.

The car itself is the very comfortable S60 which has been with us for a couple of years, built on the Volvo Large Car Platform that also underpins the S80 and C70. After my experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that if you HAVE to travel a round trip of 500kms in very severe conditions, it’d be hard to find one more suited.

The AWD doesn’t mean that you won’t lose grip, nor is it designed to make your car work like a 4x4 offroader. But it makes going on the skids a fair bit less likely. Combined with the studs and a little extra care, I found that one could progress more or less in a normal way.

And on one of the meeting-the-truck occasions when I took a judicious decision to dig into a drift instead of having a metal-to-metal confrontation, the car pulled out very satisfactorily when I got under way again (though I had to stop again to clear the snow that had heaped on the bonnet out of the ventilation intakes).

The time spent at the North Cape itself was interesting. There’s a special feeling about being as far north as you can get in Europe, enough to have one text the fact to family and friends. In some ways it is like the Cliffs of Moher, at around 300 metres above the sea. And I gather it is a busy place in summer. It was kind of nice having it all to ourselves.

I know that people who motor up here every day just take it as a matter of course. But for all of us, probing the unknown is truly an adventure. And shows up just how unprepared we are at home for even a smattering of snow, rare enough that it is.

It was fun. And also made me realise just how good today’s cars are. Particularly this one.

There's a full picture gallery of the trip available here.