Up to my -rse in Rs

In reply to buzzboy :

My Fiesta has it too.

Yaw Control aka Stability Control.   One is good the other is bad ?

My old boss' wife had one in an odd teal color and drove it like a china doll. Sold it for a song because it had "high miles" at 65,000.  Wasn't in a position to snap it up, but man I loved that car.  

iceracer said:

Yaw Control aka Stability Control.   One is good the other is bad ?

I think most yaw/stability control that works "bad" is due to the fact that in some situations the best course of action is to add power, which while doable on pretty much all modern platforms, can be a recipe for disaster liability-wise, so nobody does it that way.  With the only tool in the arsenal to be "slow down", it can be maddening.

Active AWD systems, especially the ones that can do individual wheel torque vectoring, don't have this issue because they aren't necessarily adding power, just shuttling the already-requested power to places it is more useful.  This is where the Focus RS gets its cool factor, since it has an overdriven rear final drive and individual axle clutch packs, so it can send up to something like 70% of requested torque to an individual rear wheel.

Found number 18, on the leather owner's manual cover.

Getting the hang of driving this thing.  It understeers a LOT, which is to be expected in a nose heavy AWD car.  But apply power, which is the inverse of what you'd think you should do, and the computers use that to apply brakes here and redirect thrust there and you come out like a hero.  I know what my new license plate will be, and anybody who grew up playing DOOM would know what it means.

Also, $700 was well-spent on snow tires.

Also, the recirc valve that KKK integrated into the mighty K24-7400 turbo sounds like one of my cats sneezing.  RIP Jumbo.  Being a drive by wire car, Volvo closes the thottle on shifts, which annoys me greatly (eliminates the advantage of turbo + automatic) and so I get to hear this a lot, especially when the engine is cold and the cam timing is so advanced that the turbo sounds like a dentist's drill at idle.

You are making me really miss my x type. 

I have S60 2.5T AWD.  I've had it since October, and still finding stuff.  Seeing the Owners Manual above was a Duh moment.  Should read it.   I've found my car to be a fun car, then again I don't drive as aggressively as I used to.  I did find you can 360 it in a snow covered parking lot, but straighten it out, and goes where pointed. I agree with the Wheee analogy.  

Can you get a magic box to tweak the e-throttle?

In reply to EvanB :

Given the engine's propensity for splitting cylinder liners, I'm leaving the tune 100% stock.  People who go for Big Power drop in old 850 blocks because smaller bores mean stronger cylinders.  (WOW this reminds me of VW-land, right down to 81mm bore vs. 83mm bore)  The most I foresee ever doing is an IPD catback, which might happen soon given the original exhaust is starting to fall apart.

I did leave the S40 completely stock except for a manual boost controller, but that just set boost to stock or lower levels.  And a high flow rear cat.  And eliminated the front muffler, leaving it with only two.  But other than THAT, I was able to retain my composure and leave well enough alone.  (Darton makes MID sleeves for whiteblocks!)

The only real goofy thing about the e-throttle is that, in Comfort and (Clarkson voice) Advanced mode, the throttle response is linear.  In Sport mode, there is a lot of off-idle throttle lag, which makes driving smoothly rather difficult.

Knurled. said:

Getting the hang of driving this thing.  It understeers a LOT, which is to be expected in a nose heavy AWD car. 

And then, on not one but two occasions today, I found myself leading with the tail end, so to speak, with little involvement on my part.  I could feel the computers rotating the car for me.

Need to autocross this just to be in an environment to find its limits and how it reacts near them.  Driver input smoothness and confidence seems to be the important thing, and I'm reminded heavily of what someone said about how his Evo X responded to driver attitude.  Autocross season is far away, though.  Next Detroit rallycross is February 24th, at I-96.  Hmm.

Knurled. said:

fidelity101 said:

please don't rallycross it - you will break it...

 

Hellz to the no.  Magnetic numbers will scratch the paint.

Embedding fails, you have to click

Pump bushing seize of death

(Prepare to meet your fate)

Volvo rallycross five hundred eighty-eight....

Did you break it again?  If so your god mode plate may need revoked.  Too bad we don’t have 10 character plates, you could downgrade to IDSPISPOPD

I'M OKAY!

(okay for those of you younger than... uh... a lot.  or haven't watched M*A*S*H a ton:  Col. Blake got sent home, but his plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan with "no survivors".  Very emotional scene, and the actors weren't told of this development before filming, so the reactions are that much more real.  On the next show to air on that channel, the Cher show, had Blake's actor in a rowboat, shouting "Hey guys, I'm okay! I'm okay!")

(edited to fix links)

By the title, I thought there would be more cars yet still fewer Rs.

In reply to GCrites80s :

I have an RX-7, an RX-7, an RX-3, a Rabbit, and a "Quantum R" (it's like a Golf R but more longitudinal and less vapebro), and until recently was seriously contemplating the purchase of a Focus RS since they seem to suffer catastrophic depreciation.  This is just another in a remarkably long line of Rs.

(we shan't speak of the Subaru RX that I used to have.  Yes RX, not WRX.  You can look it up.  Mine was a four door.  So, technically, teh R is not my first turbo AWD car, and technically correct is the what kind of correct now?)

Patrick said:

Did you break it again?  If so your god mode plate may need revoked.  Too bad we don’t have 10 character plates, you could downgrade to IDSPISPOPD

The '84 RX-7 should get IDCHOPPERS.

I realize now that the chainsaw in DOOM is probably 90% of why I wanted a heavily ported rotary later in life.

(doesn't suck)

So.... four years and six months ago...

Today:

100,000 mile verdict?  Still berking awesome!!!  The handling is still astounding for a car its weight, the ride is impressive for a car of its handling, the 330mm Brembo brakes... have a lot to work with, and the interior is holding up in exactly the way that E36s don't.

I did swap in a late T5 engine, which is basically the R engine with 2mm smaller bores and smaller channels between them (less likely to crack) and .5 higher compression.  It gets better fuel economy now  and I still have resisted the urge to do a tune or a turbo upgrade.

I did, however, add another R.

If I could switch to metric, this would read a half million.

You do seem to add miles quickly. Given that my Volvo is about 100k miles behind yours, it's nice to know it's holding up.

When researching quick factory Volvos, I was surprised to find the S60R was still in the top 10 fastest, despite being 20 years old

In reply to calteg :

The recent thread about the M2 made me giggle a little.

The S60R has roughly the same weight and has a shorter wheelbase.  The M2 mainly has a lot more power and wider tires.  The M2 is also rear wheel drive, not all wheel drive, and my personal prejudice is that RWD's main advantage is steering feel, and if you have power steering, there is no point to limiting yourself to RWD.

I never find myself using even the power that I have available, so to quote Rolls-Royce's line, the power is sufficient.  As for tires... there's no room for more, and I never find myself running out of grip, even in the rain (thanks, Continental!) with 235 width tires, so wider rubber would mostly just require ugly bodywork to cover them and reduce fuel economy.

So, I'm still pleased with the car   I could tell myself that $4000 or so spent for an ipd 4T4 turbo upgrade would get me into M2/3/4 power range, but why?  Sufficient is sufficient and it's already paid for...

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

You forgot to mention that the M2 already comes with ugly bodywork..

In reply to dannyp84 :

Needed to clear the tires

What is a little interesting is that adjusted for inflation, the M2 is cheaper.  Let's see if they depreciate 90% after ten years the way the P2Rs did.

340,000 mile update.

On a certain uphill sweeping interchange, it's most amusing to feel the ABS kicking in to brake the inside wheels to torque vector the car through the corner, but this only happens if the front is understeering.  The computer seems to be monitoring steering angle vs yaw angle and correcting accordingly.