Letting things slide
The trip to Fäviken also got us access to one of the frozen lakes on which Volvo ( and every other carmaker) tests its prototypes. Slaloming the V90 around a series of long, drifty, sheet-ice bends with the stability control on, it’s striking how much slip the system allows and how subtle the help is when it arrives. In previous generations of these systems you could feel the brakes firing like machine guns to pull the car straight, or the torque just vanishing, leaving a dead throttle pedal. Now, you barely notice. With the ESP off you can induce lift- off oversteer, but the long wheelbase makes it easy to catch, and you can get back on the throttle for a classic AWD drift with all four wheels spitting snow but the fronts mostly at dead-ahead. The fifth-gen Haldex system in the V90 always sends a tiny amount of torque to the rears and can shuttle up to 70 percent there almost instantly when required. The seatbelt pre-tensioner senses when you’re being an idiot and very quickly and firmly pulls you deep and straight in your seat, ready for a crash: I just wondered if the shock might not cause one.