"Volvo comes alive with V-8"

Volvo comes alive with V-8
Safety still foremost feature in S80 flagship sedan
at http://www.washtimes.com/autoweekend/20070614-085518-8623r.htm

 

Sounds Great, but not a single word about mileage, could somebody be hiding
something?

 

www.volvocars.co.uk says 15.7mpg urban, 34mpg extra urban and 23.7
combined, with the 6-speed geartronic.

Of course they are British definitions of urban and extra urban and, for
that matter, gallon. European spec car too.

I'm sure the US site has the data for the US spec model.

Ah yes, it does: 17mpg city and 25mpg highway.

I always wonder what the differences are between US city and UK urban,
and US highway and UK extra urban.

The US values are typically closer together while in this instance the
US City is significantly better than the Euro Urban, the Euro extra
urban is a little better than the US highway.

 

Uk=15.7mpg urban
US=17mpg city

If the Uk gallon is larger than the US gallon then why is the mileage for UK
urban less than US city?

Do US cities have smoother pavement?
Are US cities less hilly?
Are the intersections further apart in US Cities?
Do Americans wear heavier footwear?
Is there just more traffic in US Cities?
Does fog improve mileage?

 

I've been trying to work out what the urban cycle is for US measurements
compared to the European.

I suspect a different range of speeds and different numbers of starts
and stops for the cycles.

AFAIK the euro extra urban measurement is a constant 56MPH/90km/h.

Wikipedia isn't helping me and I can't be bothered to look elsewhere. ;-)

 

Thanks for trying, I guess they prefer that the conversions be difficult.

 

I'm sure there isn't a great deal of difference between the actual cars
sold in the US compared to Europe, just the way the figures are measured.

 

Wonder how long it'll be before someone transplants one of those motors into
a 240, that would be interesting, though V8s in general aren't my cup of
tea.

 

So sad really. Fuel costs going through the roof and Volvo keeps
bringing out ever more fuel wasting cars. At least Ford found some way
to put their old Yamaha Taurus SHO engine investment back into the game.

Speaking of which, why on earth does Ford have so many different V-8
engine designs? The modular V-8 family, the Jaguar V-8 (and it's
sisters), the Yamaha/Ford/Volvo V-8 plus some pushrod motors for the
trucks. It is almost as silly as the days of the Cleveland and Windsor
engine families which shared displacement and output but not much else.
Weird.

John

 

In Sweden there are quite a few 240's, and even older Volvo's, with a
Chevy Smallblock under the hood.
;o)
Here's an example :

 

Oh there are here too, my neighbor has one in fact, but it just never seemed
right to me to stuff a 1950s tech domestic pushrod engine into a Swedish
car.

 

Huge overstatement to say the S80 "comes alive" beccause of the
addition of a V8. The turbocharged S80 was hardly dead or whatever
the opposite of "coming alive" is.

 

Wasn't the T6 nearly 300HP? I know of a guy who put a T6 motor in his 960
and is getting more than 300HP at the wheels from it. Thing about turbo
motors is there's so much more potential right out of the box in most of
them so if you *really* feel the need for more power, you can turn up the
wick and there you have it.

Funny the article mentions Volvo's performance line just came recently with
the R series, when in fact Volvo was one of the pioneers of practical
dependable turbocharged cars. When it came out in mid 1981, the 240 Turbo
was faster than most production cars of the era.

 

Agree completely - a well designed turbocharged engine is a real joy
to drive.

The T6 was north of 250 hp but south of 300 and I should know 'cause I
have one, but I don't. When you put the pedal down it delivers speed
quickly. Somehow my wife ended up driving the swedish hotrod and I'm
left with thhe V70 2.5T. But it's a Titanium series so I don't
complain too much.

The "R" series hit 300 hp as I remember.

Yes, Volvo has had turbocharged cars in the lineup for a long time. I
have the feeling that article was written by someone who was more
adept at turning out PR pieces than doing research.

 

Damn, I started smelling burning rubber. The fan pointed at the
radiator was a nice touch.