Kebbies

ok, so it's not quite as exciting as bmw or e-class events. but hey, why not =)

to drive AWD uber-bricks, click here

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"jimmy's mandating that i go on a diet! gil, i've been thrice divorced; i've already shed enough ugly fat in this lifetime." ~warren the ape

kimchicowboy

so far, only in minneapolis and SF.

psycho-

I guess it won't be as good as the R drive experience. There, they encouraged you to do clutch drops and drive the crap out of the Volvo Rs

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Victor

PCC

I'd love to try out the S60 R! I'm not into SUV's.

attgig

thanks for telling us about the R experience

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Jabberwocky

Hey guys, here's a follow up to the drive event. I just got back home 10 minutes ago from the alameda (SF area) event. I was alot funner than i thought it would be. I only drove the s80, I refuse to drive the xc90, damn SUV. The s80 is a ok car to drive, it's a awd 2.5L turbo but the awd doesn't kick in till you slip. The car understeers quite a bit. The torque curve is fairly healthy. You get power pretty much above 2500rpm. Heavy car though. The brakes are marginal.

The wait time is about 5 minutes during the first half hour of the event. However, most people take one spin and leave. So after about
45 minutes the wait time is like a minute. After about an hour there was no one in line. So i took laps. I got about 20 laps in. =)

They want you to lauch the car on a wet surface so you can appreciate AWD i guess. The course is really tight, so there's really no picking the perfect line. You just have to figure out the braking points. The course is as follows wet launch-> s curve immediately after -> 90 degree sharp right (course dries up here)-> salom -> 90 degree sharp right -> medium tight hairpin -> meduim wide hairpin -> loose right -> pit in -> and in my case repeat again and again and again. Towards the end, I didn't even get out of the car, they just waved me and let me keep going.

All in all, it was fun. the beginning of the course up until past the first salom is wet, so it's better to compensate. Anyone want ot take me as a guest tommorrow??? Anyone. j/k they recognize me as the guy who took 3 times as many laps as the next closest person. but do enjoy yourself.

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It seemed like a good idea at the time.

PCC

Where in Alameda did they do this? I was in Oakland today and drove down to Santa Clara to do some shopping (if you call buying 11 SCSI hard drives shopping).

Jabberwocky

I think you had to register ahead of time. With that said. It's is at Alameda's old army base. I don't know the street but i do know how to get there. Well If you read this in time. You can still go. It is held till sunday afternoon. You might even still be able to register on the website. Not to get your hopes up though.

And to whoever posted the event up. Thanks a bunch. Where do I find more of these events. It is so fun to opush it in a car that ain't yours. I think I nearly killed the brakes on all 4 of the s80s they had that day. The beige interrior one is slightly faster =)

They is no security whatsoever. Just walk in. They might ask you where your nametag is but just say your wife has it or something and she's in the other line testing the SUV. Twin turbo or not, that SUV sucks.

PCC

Thanks for the info. Like I posted previously, I'd prefer to drive the S60 R.