I don't know when to start, the Internet only has black and white at both ends, take the car brand, as long as it is hung up after a label, it has no other attributes worth mentioning, sports must be uncomfortable, safe must be equal to boring, like a switch, there is no other option.
But as long as you have tried enough cars, you will find that there are so many black and white in the modern automobile industry, and it is already difficult to retain your personality while ensuring balance. For example, today's protagonist Volvo, we all know that it is a car safety ceiling, so that everyone forgets how interesting it can be to drive.
There is often a saying on the Internet: "Don't use your hobbies to challenge other people's jobs." For other brands, ice and snow are more used as a standard for development and testing, but for Volvo, which was born in Scandinavia, ice and snow driving is as easy as getting a courier at the doorstep.
Although we don't have the opportunity to drive on the Yota Canal in the Kattgart Strait in winter, it is not difficult to experience the joy of ice and snow driving in China, which is rich in land, just drive to the northeast.
The ice test drive is the B4, B5 and four-wheel drive T8 versions of the Volvo S60. As a global model, the Volvo S60 is one of the few models in its class that has remained original and has not been extended.
On the one hand, this generation has been longer than the extended version of the previous generation in terms of wheelbase, and the spatial performance has been optimized. On the other hand, adhering to the standard axle means that there is no need to break the driving calibration of the original car at the time of development, although it is a front-drive model, but the Volvo S60 uses a suspension system with front aluminum double wishbones + rear composite vane springs, the weight reduction under the spring is quite good, and the front suspension of the front of the car is very long, with the intention of making the driver sit in the center of the vehicle at all times, reduce the impact on the body center of gravity, and maintain the balance between the front and back of the body as much as possible, so the driving pleasure of this car is really not weaker than the rear-drive opponents of the same level.
Since the test drive project is all ice and snow pavement, the activity party specially replaced all S60 with snow tires, so the test drive performance in this time can not be completely set in the scope of daily use, we must pay attention to it.
As we all know, Volvo is a brand that takes safety as its foundation, and ESC (Body Electronic Stability System) cannot be completely shut down. Except for the T8 version, the rest of the S60 version is front drive, horizontal front drive + safety tuning, this ice and snow journey is going to be linked to boredom? Fortunately, as the brand's control flower dan, Volvo equipped the S60 with a "small naughty mode", called "ESC Sport Mode".
As the name suggests, the sport mode represents a more radical setting. Although the ESC still cannot be turned off in this mode, the system retains about 30% of the ESC, preserving the sliding of the body as much as possible under the premise of safety.
In order to experience the difference between this mode, each test drive is divided into two laps, the first lap is performed in full ESC and the second lap is performed in ESC Sport mode.
The different performance of the S60 in the two modes is still quite obvious, in the case of ESC full opening, the vehicle's trackability will be better, but more inclined to the push head, in addition to deceleration, it is difficult to increase the angle of the corner by increasing the throttle. After activating the ESC Sport Mode, the vehicle can obviously have a larger slide, but only to a certain extent, and the electronic system will take over the vehicle if a danger is detected, and the body will return to the state of the push head.
Because of the limitation of the driving form, there is no way to achieve drift by making the rear wheel lose grip instantly through the throttle, so how can we "catch the shrimp household" on the ice?
Interestingly, I found that as long as the opposite is done, first accelerate so that the car has a tendency to push the head, and then hit the direction and release the throttle, in the moment of loose oil, the body load transfer, the front wheels get grip, the front of the car to the bending direction into, this time and then the big foot to the oil, the body posture can have a relatively large translation, although not as exaggerated as the rear drive, but the rear can also get a good sliding.
Although there is no way to increase the traverse of the body by stepping on the throttle deeply, it is a pity that it is not possible to do continuous and uninterrupted drifting, but fortunately you do not need to worry about the throttle being too large and causing the vehicle to go to the wall. When the system detects that the wheels have lost grip due to excessive steering, the AYC side slip angle monitoring and II.TCS traction control system will actively intervene to help the driver better stabilize the body and avoid losing control.
With a combined power of 288 kW, a combined torque of 640 N·m, a 100 km/h acceleration of only 4.7 s, and a variety of driving modes, it is natural that I have put the focus of this test drive on the S60 T8.
Compared with the front-drive B5 version, because the T8's four-wheel drive mode uses a front-axle engine, the rear axle motor to cooperate, so in the pure electric mode, the car naturally becomes the rear-drive, especially the biggest advantage of the motor is that it can instantly burst the maximum torque, so the amplitude of the body swing and the continuous ability of drift are better than the front-drive version.
But a slight disappointment is that although the T8 version is easier to let the body enter the horizontal posture, the four-wheel drive and the ESC calibration have never been able to completely hand over the car to the driver, nor can it achieve uninterrupted drift like the rear-drive car, after all, the motor power of the rear wheel is only 65kW and 240N·m, and even the low adhesion of the ice and snow road is difficult to continuously break through the grip of the snow tire.
After four laps and two cars switching on and off eschews the ESC Sport mode, I came to the conclusion that the body was more obedient and more enjoyable when the electronic system was fully turned on.
When the ESC is turned on, even if it is a large throttle state, the start will limit the power output on the wheel to reduce the skidding of the car's start, and it will also maintain the maximum grip of the tire when braking, and by braking at high frequencies without interruption, to avoid tire locking, as far as possible to reduce the distance of the car taxiing, shorten the braking distance.
Volvo, you don't have to please everyone
To sum up the day's test drive, if you say indulge to play to go wild, this S60 is indeed not as fun to drive as the rear-drive car, but for ordinary consumers, they are more likely to be able to control the vehicle on the ice and snow road, rather than pursuing "out of control". For southern drivers like us who are not skilled in driving or who lack experience in driving on ice and snow roads, the S60 is more like a good driving school teacher, no matter how you explore the limits, safety is still the gene of the Volvo brand.
In fact, volvo, whether in the Swedish touring car championship or in the WTCC, is a prominent existence, but also a brand that has grown up from the track, and has rich experience in mechanical tuning.
For manipulation, there may be many conventions commonly known as definitions, although in terms of size can not match the BBA, but I do appreciate Volvo's character. It does not lengthen, it does not blindly cause the vehicle to be a rear-drive, there is no character is the world's misunderstanding of it, and adhering to the bottom line is its greatest charm. I like this brand that doesn't seek to please everyone, there is no brand that can make all consumers like it, just as you yourself will not like everyone in the world, will you?