We got a lot of snowfall in the past 2 days, and the roads were once again covered in a uniform layer of stamped snow. The Volvo is really starting to show it's downsides when the roads are in good condition though. Anything over 60 kph is too much for the soft suspension. When going up a motorway ramp sideways, you get a huge weight transfer when the car straightens up again. Also, the steering is very vague and it's hard to feel confident even when you are in control.
Im going to keep the speed below 50-60kph from now on, as it isn't my car, but even at slow speeds it a bit tricky. Unless you do a good bit of scandinavian flicking, you often end up with just the inside wheel spinning, which is unsatisfying. And if you get the car properly sideways before the bend (as you should), you need to get off the gas immediately, apply a LOT of opposite lock, and then balance the throttle due to the crappy tires at the rear. That means you can either go all out with the angle of the slide, or not slide at all.Due to these "features", the Volvo is best in reasonably tight, yet wide(because the car is huge) 90-180 degree turns. On less tight bends, the speeds tend to pick up too much, and as I said earlier, it's very hard to keep the andle of the slide reasonable. It's good fun to boot the power at the end of the slide though, as the tires struggle for grip
Basically the Volvo's winter driving "statistics" can be summed up with:
1997/8 Volvo 940 2.3 Turbo estate:
Good:
-RWD.
-Huge steering angles, it's a very hard car to spin in, even with the shit tires.
-Light enough steering to be used with just one hand.
-Long wheelbase, which means that everything happens quite slowly
-Enough juice for winter drifting
-The auto box is not completely hopeless
-Good visibility
Bad:
-
SOFT suspension
-Large size, it's a bit on the large side for tighter roads.
-No LSD, I still hate my father for not ticking that box in the options list.
-Very bad studded tires, especially at the rear, these affect the way the car a handles a lot.
-It does weigh quite a bit, which often means that you slide a bit wider than you originally wanted due to the inertia
Family portrait for no real reason:
I personally wouldn't recommend it as a winter car to have fun in. A 740 does that job a lot better. Im not a huge fan of Volvos in general, and this car is not really going to change my opinion. It's as soft and wallowy as you'd expect, but it's still more fun than any Fwd car in winter imo.