Westward ho!
Volvo V90 D5 Inscription AWD Auto £44,555 OTR/£50,530 as tested
London to Cornwall and back with lots of stuf and people is what a big estate is all about. No surprise in its shrugging of that job with nonchalance. It’s also done a weekend away with a complete bike in the boot (slightly dismantled) plus a load of other stuf, all without folding the back seat. Its length can be a challenge – it barely wedged through a farmyard gate and is a pain to berth in my London street – but the compensating virtue of interior space is abundant. That and its relaxed dynamics make it the stereotypical Swedish car.
Much of Britain’s car industry is far-fung, both in philosophical distance from the mainstream, and geographic position. Over two days the Volvo took me to a pair of fascinating outfts making alt-lightweights, more or less at opposite sides of this mainland.
I went to Riversimple to see what’s up now it has completed its crowdfunder to build production examples. The HQ is in Llandindrod Wells, deep in Wales. Getting there from the M5, down the Teme valley, is a gorgeous drive on a spring day. It exposed the laggy engine, indecisive transmission and soft steering, but even so yielded more driving fun than a supercar confined to the Home Counties.
From West to East. From a carbon-fibre-bodied fuel-cell-powered little coupe to an aluminium-structured petrol-powered roadster: the new Elise Sprint. Volvo’s steel-bodied diesel-fuelled barge was back in its comfort zone up the dual-carriageway of the A11.