PHOENIX -- Nearly 100 years ago, former U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt described the Apache Trail (Arizona Highway 88) as a place that combines "the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon, then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have. To me, it is the most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful panorama nature has ever created."
Truly spectacular views of craggy mountains and towering cliffs are dotted with walnut, sycamore, ash, willow and cottonwood trees. This place, a 90-minute drive from Phoenix, is worth visiting.
The trail, in fact, was built to create a supply route for construction of nearby Roosevelt Dam. Some 60 kilometres long, it remains an unpaved trail in the truest sense of the word.
The trickiest stretch, the one we curiously found ourselves navigating in a Volvo XC90 with a V-8 engine that won't go on sale until next summer, is Fish Creek Hill. The literature at the ranger station in Tonto National Forest describes this hill as "steep, narrow and winding." This is an understatement. In 1911, automobile enthusiast R.L. Greer described it as a joyous road for adventurous spirits. "The chances of dropping over a precipice would make it more interesting."
There is a rich irony in this for those of us taking a debut run in a Volvo sport utility vehicle (SUV) powered by Volvo's first-ever V-8 engine, supplied by, amazingly enough, Japan's Yamaha.
First of all, that Volvo even sells an SUV takes some getting used to -- even if it is a runaway bestseller. Bowing to market forces, the Swedes now sell a big, seven-passenger truck. Interestingly, XC90 buyers rarely take their SUVs anywhere near something as tricky to drive as Fish Creek Hill.
Volvo Canada marketing boss Larry Futers says the XC90 might seem the logical choice for tackling ruts, rocks and river crossings, but that's not what buyers do with it.
"We find luxury SUV buyers, people who buy the XC90, come from luxury sedans," says Futers, referring to the two years of data collected since the launch of the XC90. "They are a more relaxed, less adventuresome group."
Then there is the historical Volvo record. For baby boomers like me, Volvo still represents safety and frugality. For some, tall, fuel-inefficient SUVs represent the very antithesis of those traditional values.
As for frugality, the 311-horsepower XC90 is, I think, one of the better vehicles of its type. There is a price to be paid for that, however. The current all-wheel-drive XC90 range starts at $48,995 and tops out at $61,995 for a loaded-to-the-gunnels T6. Expect the V-8 model to roll in wearing a sticker in the $64,000-$66,000 range.
Futers says the pricing will be competitive against rival V-8-powered SUVs such as the BMW X5 4.4i ($71,700), Volkswagen Touareg V-8 ($67,200) and the Mercedes-Benz ML500 ($68,690). I'd also throw the Infiniti FX45 ($60,500) into that mix, along with the Land Rover LR3 ($61,900-$67,900), the Lexus GX470 ($67,700), Cadillac's SRX V8 ($61,215) and the Porsche Cayenne ($78,800 for the S).
Volvo officials see the V-8 as critical to the XC90 and make no apologies for it.
"It takes a V-8 to go all the way in the premium SUV segment," chief program engineer Jorgen Svensson told us prior to our test drive. "But there was one problem. Volvo [or Wolvo as the Swedes tend to pronounce the company name] has no history of building V-8s. So we turned to Yamaha."
Yamaha, of course, created some wonderful high-performance V-6 engines for the old Ford Taurus SHO. Ford-owned Volvo had a natural entrée into Yamaha thanks to its Dearborn, Mich., connection.
And the engine Svensson and his colleagues ended up with is a beauty, though it was tricky to shoehorn a brawny 4.4-litre, twin-cam V-8 into the engine of a mid-sized SUV. The engine only fits because it is a narrow-angle design of 60 degrees, rather than the usual 90 degrees.
In addition, says Svensson, the left cylinder bank was offset slightly from the right. All engine accessories -- the alternator and air conditioner compressor, for instance, were bolted directly to the block.
And voila! The V-8 is mounted transversely, or east to west, rather than longitudinally, or north-south, as is the case with a traditional V-8. This may not seem like such a big deal, yet it is.
Volvo needed to maintain the transverse layout to maintain the XC90's crumple zones for five-star (the best possible) crashworthiness. Passenger safety is, naturally, critical for the Volvo brand. The transverse setup allows Volvo engineers to design against the possibility of the engine landing in passengers' laps in a front-end collision.
Somewhere in all this, Volvo and Yamaha also managed to squeeze out more horsepower than any of its V-8 rivals, save the 315-hp X5 4.4i. The XC90's performance is impressive: 0-100 km/h in 7.3 seconds. Top speed is limited to 190 km/h. Fuel consumption is 13.3 litres/100 km in the city, which is significantly better than most in this class.
At the same time, says Svensson, the XC90's V-8 is the only one in an SUV that meets the U.S. government's tough ULEV II (ultra-low emissions vehicle) standards. Look underneath and you will find the main reason why: four, close-coupled catalytic converters. Volvo also engineered what's called a "lean cold-start circuit" to minimize harmful pollutants during the critical 15-20 seconds right at a cold start-up.
"It is during these 15-20 seconds that the majority of the emissions of environmentally harmful substances take place," says Svensson.
As V-8s go, it is pretty clean.
The other nuts and bolts include a new, compact, six-speed automatic transaxle with "Geartronic" semi-manual shifting. Base models without the V-8 get a less fancy, five-speed automatic.
Then there is the standard full-time, all-wheel-drive system. For the XC90, it has been improved to allow for a quicker transfer of engine power from the front to rear wheels. This is important when you want traction on slippery surfaces.
Essentially, the Haldex AWD system is precharged with a useful measure of torque available to the rear wheels if the fronts begin slipping when you leave from a standing start. Volvo calls it Instant Traction and claims to be the first with it in the world.
"This reduces the usual wheel-spin of about one-seventh of a turn that the current system permits before the power is delivered to the rear wheels," Svensson says.
For slaying messy, unpaved roads like the Apache Trail, ground clearance remains the same at 226 millimetres. If you tow, the XC90's capability maxes out at 2,272 kilograms.
The whole package is really quite good. Yes, the engine could make sweeter, more impressive sounds when you goose the throttle, but that might seem out of character for a Volvo. I think Volvo might also want to tart up the exterior with more obvious visual cues referring to that V-8 under the hood.
This truck drives well, though. The ride is so quiet it is possible at freeway speeds to hold a conversation with passengers in the back seats. On the nastiest bits of the Apache Trail there was no wicked jostling or banging, despite the crustiness of the dirt track. Inside, the XC90 V-8 is just like all the other XC90s -- controls make sense, visibility is excellent, and safety features include roll stability control and a wide array of airbags for front, rear and even third-row passengers.
Volvo is aiming to sell 15,000 of these V-8 trucks each year. That will not be a problem.
Specifications
2006 Volvo XC90 V-8
Price: (estimated) $64,000-$66,000
Engine: 4.4-litre V-8 DOHC
Output: 311 hp and 315 lb-ft of torque
Transmission: Six-speed Geartronic automatic
Fuel economy (litres/100 km): 13.3 city
Alternatives: BMW X5 4.4i, Volkswagen Touareg V-8, Mercedes-Benz ML500, Infiniti FX45, Land Rover LR3, Lexus GX470, Cadillac SRX V-8, Porsche Cayenne S
Like: Very comfortable SUV; smooth V-8; excellent outward visibility; strong on safety
Don't like: Volvo quality still needs to move up to be ranked among best in class; not many clues, visual or audible, to tell you there is a V-8 under there
