Euro delivery of Volvo C30 and driving the Ring

I don't know if anyone's interested, but here's a draft of a two part article I wrote for my company Motorsports club magazine. I was prompted to post this by the Hockenheim Vs Nurburgring post.

I work for Ford and we have an internal club (Ford Motorsports Club - FMC) the newsletter is First On Race Day (F.O.R.D.) I can't find the final version right now, but here's the unedited draft as I'm lazy :) Due to changes in the club the newsletter was delayed several months, so even though I wrote this back in August the first part was only just published in the Christmas/January edition, the second part will come out next time, so your getting a sneak peak :)

Part 1 of 2: 130 miles per hour. Not a bad way to cross an international border if you ask me, and a whole lot better than waiting for an hour and thirty minutes at the Ambassador Bridge. It’s close to 11pm and we're heading for an overnight stop in Hamburg on our way to a little town called Nurburg. We started the day with breakfast in Copenhagen, spent the morning at the Viking longship museum in Rosklide then filled a childhood ambition of both my seven and thirteen year-old daughters and mine by spending the afternoon at the original Legoland in Billund. We got on the road around 9:00pm. Google maps and the Michelin online guide both claim the journey is around 300km’s and 3 hours,. Google and Michelin hadn’t counted on Volvo power and an empty autobahn, so we rolled up to the Holiday Inn a little after 11:00pm. Flushed with speed of that leg of our journey we feel we can lie in a little before the jog down to Nurburg for a few laps the next day.

So why were we crossing from Denmark to Germany at twice almost twice the legal speed limit in Michigan? It all started months before. It was my turn in the family roster for a new vehicle, much as I loved my SVT Contour, it had almost 150,000 miles and was in need of replacement. I really missed the practicality of the hatch in my previous Focus so I went hot hatch shopping. Within the extended Ford family that meant the Mazdaspeed3, the Volvo C30 with one of the last of the Mazdaspeed6’s as a long shot if I ignored the lack of hatch, but AWD is mighty tempting. The MS3 is an amazing vehicle, but in the end the ride and exhaust note were a bit too “sporty” for a daily driver. I loved the more mature performance of the MS6 until we pulled up at the Volvo dealer.

After coming home from the 2007 International Auto Show my wife dutifully asked “so what did you see? Anything nice?” She then mentally tuned out the expected rants and raves about how Ferrari styling has gone to hell overt the last 15 years and how sharp the models were on the Lamborghini stand. Instead, and she still remembers my gushing enthusiasm I apparently bored the house for days raving about the amazing looks, practicality and overall concept of the new Volvo C30. “Who would have thought that the best looking car at the show would be a Volvo, pity I’ll never get one” I apparently repeated endlessly over the next few weeks. Well timing and circumstances now said I might.

The test drive left me really impressed at the ride handling compromise plus the traditional Volvo vault-like feel. The ride somehow managed to be smooth, comfortable, easily absorbing wince inducing pot hole impacts while at the same time providing great chassis feel and steering feel with a great turn in for an entry level luxury FWD car. With 236lb/ft of torque available all the way from 1,500 to 5,000rpm it’s no surprise that it pulled well from low rpm with negligible turbo lag, 236hp while reasonably quick is never going to be in the same ballpark as the Mazda twins. My only hesitation was the gearbox, I couldn’t locate a C30, or it’s S40/V50 twins with a manual anywhere close enough for a test drive, and the automatic felt lethargic and hesitant at around-town speeds. Eventually a drive of a used 5 speed V50 convinced me it was worth taking the risk.

But how to buy it? A-plan provides the standard 6% discount off MSRP and as long as you don’t spend too much time with the option list a nice V2.0, which has many worthwhile upgrades over the V1.0, can come in around $25K. Prior to walking in to the dealer I was aware that Volvo, like most European manufacturers, offer a European delivery program known as OSD or Overseas Delivery Program. Once I found that for all 08 models that offered 8%(1) off MSRP plus two round trip airline tickets to Sweden, one night in the Radisson hotel in Gothenburg and up to two months insurance plus roadside protection for all of Europe (excluding the old Eastern Bloc states) it was a done deal. The only down side to the Euro delivery program are you have to buy not lease, pay for the car one month before pick up and you have to wait around three months from order to pick up. None of these were issues for us and we had been planning on a family vacation back to Europe to see my parents in England anyway, this just provided two free tickets and solved the car hire dilemma all in one stroke.

After the long wait from March to June we set off for Sweden. Alexandra my eldest daughter and myself fly compliments of Volvo on Scandinavian airlines. After landing at Gothenburg airport, we head out of baggage claim to be met by a taxi driver from Volvo holding up a placard with our name on it. By now, three flights and almost 24 hours since leaving Detroit, we’re pretty tired for the drive into the city center, but we do notice a huge number of Volvos and Saabs on the road, it seems the Swedes are little more intent on buying local than Americans are. We also notice a large number of vehicles sporting racks of lights like rally cars; they obviously take the long dark winter nights seriously up here.

So to the Radisson, which is an excellent hotel, again compliments of Volvo where we catch up on rest. A few hours later my wife and youngest arrive on Northwest, and although the package is just for two, Volvo still pick them up from the airport and bring them to the hotel to join us. Thanks to the time change, getting up the next morning is a bit of a chore, but a jog through the city streets watching the locals walk, bike and catch trams to work soon wakes us up. Well, that and the coffee with pastries we found a few blocks away.

Having roused the kids it was check out time and another complimentary pick up by Volvo and off to the factory. Despite the fact that the C30 is actually built at the Ghent plant in Germany, all European delivery vehicles are picked up in Gothenburg campus where they have a separate OSD center. Once inside you’re greeted by knowledgeable and courteous staff who know you and your car, first there are complimentary refreshments and a place to store your luggage before getting down to paper work. One of the staff sit down and cover your order, spec sheet, options and also offer you the chance to purchase other options for fitting while you wait, I saw one customer decide on a different steering wheel and they whisked the car off to be modified immediately. My car had different floor mats than ordered and these were changed in less than 15 minuets. The also cover the legal side, you receive a temporary title and have to sign an affidavit stating that the vehicle will be exported to the United States within six months or you personally become liable for the 25% Swedish sales tax. You’ll never complain about Michigan’s 6% again after that little shocker. They then explain the roadside assistance and insurance, basically you can travel anywhere in Europe except the former Soviet countries, apparently a number of cars headed east and neither they, their owners or any vehicle loan payments were seen again! One amusing aside, as I had traveled with Alexandra my eldest and my wife and youngest daughter traveled separately, Volvo assumed Alexandra was my spouse so named her on the title, insurance and road side assistance documents, we’ve been teasing here since then that she’s liable for half the loan although I’ve yet to get any money out of her. After that there’s a free lunch, Swedish meatballs naturally, and the option of a factory tour. Having worked at many assembly plants, I had no need to see another, so after a quick vote with the rest of the family it was time to load up and head south.

Four people and luggage for two weeks was always going to be a tight fit in a C30. We had gone so far as to make a run to the dealer with our luggage the week before departure, but this is where the C30 really started to shine. Surprising the salesperson and us it swallowed our bags so easily we immediately went home and added some more. A few minutes careful packaging and everything fitted in the hatch, leaving the passenger area relatively free of clutter. The other huge advantage of the C30 was now also evident. The C30 is built on the C1 platform with its larger siblings the S40 and V50 as well as the European Focus, C-Max and Mazda3. Compared with all those 5 plus-seaters the C30 is a pure four-seater. The rear seats are individual and moved slightly closer to the centerline as there is no need for a third passenger. This gives excellent shoulder room and as the wheelbase is the same as the other models, the legroom is ample too. At 6 foot and the wrong side of 200lb’s I can set the front seat up to be comfortable and then climb in the back and be comfortable too. Over the coming 2,200 miles with some days stretching up to seven hours in the car, there were less complaints from the back seat than in a normal 20-minute drive to school in my SVT Contour. The seats, both front and back are amazing, some of the very best in any car I’ve owned or traveled in.

So forward a few days and it’s back to the start of this piece on route to the Nurburgring at an overnight stop in Hamburg…..to be continued in the next edition of First on Race Day

PArt 2a.

So forward a few days and it’s back to the start of this piece on route to the Nurburgring at an overnight stop in Hamburg. As we arrived so late and having made such great time on the Autobahn we had a lazy start the next day. The Nurburgring was supposedly 317 miles and 4hours 48 minuets away, phaa, that’s doing 70mph, we’d already proved 130 was easily doable. Even allowing for lunch stops we figured 4hours 30 mins was easily doable. Getting on the road a little after 10:00am we figured we’d get to the Ring around 3:00pm, plenty of time to stop at the hotel, check in and drop off our luggage before heading out for some laps. Little did we know what was in store for us.

Five minutes after leaving the hotel we’re cruising at 100mph, 10 minutes after leaving the hotel we’re stationary, and that’s how we’ll stay on and off for the next seven plus hours. It turns out doing 130mph on a deserted Autobahn late on a Saturday night is easy, what we hadn’t figure on was dense Sunday traffic and roadwork that make you pine for I75 in summer. We also discovered several times during the course of the day that German rest stops charge for using the restrooms, even if you eating food there, with an 8oz (OK 240ml) cappuccino costing over $5 I was having a hard time with that, if I were a lesser man I may have resorted to the woods out back, but I’d never do that would I!

So we roll into Nurburg just as the track was closing. No problem I figure we’ll spend the night and do a few laps when the track opened the following morning, except a high end track day company has exclusively booked the track for the whole day and it doesn’t open to the public until 5:00pm, we’re supposed to leave for Amsterdam the following morning and have a date with some friends at a zoo in Billund on the way. As it turns out this apparent disaster turns out to be a blessing in disguise, it didn’t feel that way at the time and after 7 hours in traffic jam daddy (that would be me) was rather upset and behaving worse than the kids.

We were staying at the Burgstube Nurburg hotel right in the middle of nurburg just below the ruin of the castle that gave the area its name. After a quick check with family they agreed to spend the day locally and cut short out time in the Netherlands. That night in the hotel bar we got to hear why we hadn’t missed much. There were two Brit’s who’d come over for the weekend on their bikes, plus two more Brit’s who worked there. It turns out the bikers got exactly two laps the entire weekend. What went wrong? Well many of you will know the cult British TV show ‘Top Gear’ A few years ago now the main presenter Jeremy Clarkson took a diesel powered Jag S type to the ring and after much effort broke the 10 minuet barrier, his guide in that endeavor was Sabine Schmidt the famously good looking German race car driver, ‘ring Taxi’ operator and now TV presenter of Germany's versions of ‘Top gear’ she was less than complementary about Jeremy’s efforts and said she could beat him in a Van, she then very nearly beat the 10 minute barrier in a Ford Transit. Apparently since that time the popularity of the ring has exploded with hundred’s of people, a disproportionaly high number being Brit’s, turn up every weekend determined to prove to their mates that they’re faster than ‘Jezzer’ who is not know to be the worlds best driver. While he may not be the best in terms of lap speed they forget that he still spends his life driving cars, often at the limit so a has a lot of practice and b knows his limits. They don’t know there so they tend to throw themselves at he scenery with monotonous regularity, the up shot is the Sunday we intended to run the Ring it was only open for two short 45 minuet stints between picking errant wannabee’s out of the bushes. So even if I’d got there two hours earlier I wouldn’t have got to drive.

We learned a couple of things that night. First beer and pizza are actually very reasonable unlike everything else in Germany. The other is Ringworms, no we didn’t suffer faulty plumbing. Your familiar with Ski bums, normally young people who take menial jobs in ski resorts so they can ski all season long. Well the Nurburgring has ring bums, or Ringworms as they call themselves, dozens of people, again mainly British who live and work on the cheap so they can buy a season ticket to the ring an do dozens of laps each week, they form part of the hard core of maybe 200 ringers who are armature experts at the track and know each other well. Two of those guys were working in the hotel we were staying at. Now, one of these guys is called Andy Carlisle if you Google the name you’ll find he’s also know as ‘Andypath’ the reason being is he holds the ‘unofficial’ ring lap record on a bike with a bridge to gantry time of 7minets 19 seconds. Gulp. Over the beer and Pizza he casual asked if I’d like a few pointers and someone to ride with me, hell yeah.

So next day after finding a beautiful secluded private lake to swim and play at thanks to the friend making ability of my seven year old, we turn up at the track around 5:30 when the track day should have finished. There are Porsches, Ferraris, Caterhams and M3’s everywhere along with many Evo’s, STi’s and the occasional Miata plus every type of bike you can imagine. The track day is slow clearing out so while waiting I go and buy a 4 lap tickets for 77Euro’s or a little over $110 today thanks to the weakness of the $, it was even more when we were there. Reading the info that reminds you it’s a public road and traffic laws still apply I was worried to se a notice stating that vehicles with temporary export plates are not allowed, whoops, have I made a big mistake? Checking with Andy he said naa, despite the big obvious red Swedish plate no one paid attention to that and they got a couple of people a month from America running their new Porsches or Astons around. Phew, back to waiting. On Andy’s advice we hung out and let the crowds clear, as soon as they opened it to the public there was a mass of cars and bikes queuing to go out, so for the first half an hour it was crowded, then as many people had done their single lap it calmed down and we were up. In the down time I bought the T shirt and inevitable Nurburgring sticker for the back window to be worn with pride then waited.

The first lap was four up with the family; yes I took my wife and children out with me. A couple of points before people start telling me how irresponsible I was. I drove that first lap as if I was on a one way public road with no speed limit, which I was, but I was also driving purely within my site lines, I could have stopped at any point within my visible distance in case there was some thing, or one around the apex. The result of this was a) a huge amount of fun. B) The discovery that my seven year old like to go fast c) this place really does live up to it’s reputation d) I suck and e) the brakes were shot, faded to mush. So, after getting back in my wife and eldest jump out, Andy jumps in and the seven year old begs one more lap. The first thing we did was go and drive about 10 km’s on regular public roads at moderate speed without touching the brakes to cool them down, which worked a treat. On that brake cooling drive we saw not one, but three Porsche Carrera GT’s plus sundry other exotica. Then it was back in line for another go. Wow, it’s amazing having someone next to you who knows the track and the people there like the back of his hand. It’s not like a rally co driver reading from pace notes, it’s far far better than that. We still had the most precious of cargo in the back, but we were going quicker as I had someone who knew what was round the next corner. It’s amazing to have a constant stream coming at your something like this. ‘Roll of the gas here, stay in 3rd and don’t brake, late apex and hold your speed as your immediately going into a right hander after which you can accelerate through the next left hander and change up, after than move to the right as Joe’s coming up on his bike and will blow past you’ Joe being the merest dot in your mirror at this point, but sure enough has caught me in the third corner and Andy waves as he blast past. After that we dropped my youngest off and went out for another couple of now faster laps. Apparently when asked what she thought of the second lap she said ‘it was jerkier and daddy said some bad words’ that would be the missed apexes, woops.

part 2b

My last two laps were brilliant pure car geek Nirvana. No I can’t claim to recognize more than a couple of corners and I definitely can’t claim to have driven well, the exact opposite in fact, I drove appallingly still turning in too early, not looking ahead and generally behaving like a complete beginner, but it was magical all the same. It’s true what people say, I can’t imagine any track being as much fun or as much of a challenge, it’s quite simply amazing, an absolute must do at some point in any enthusiast. Andy’s polite summation was the last lap was better than the first and he thought it was probably a 10 mionet 30 sort of pace, which I was actually delighted with. I had no intention of going balls out, I deliberately made sure I had no way of timing myself and had avoided any videos’ of the ring for months as I specifically didn’t want to be one of those Brit’s throwing myself at the scenery, yes, I’m an ex-Pat Englishman who’s made himself at home in the US by the way. Only four laps? Yes, just four magical memory for a life time laps, but it was already pushing 7:00pm so we bought Andy a quick beer, gave him my remaining Euro’s as a tip, loaded up the family and luggage that the hotel had kept then it was time to press on to Amsterdam by 10:30 for more beer and sleep.

So, how did the car fare, well after the brake fade on the first lap which was due to extreme caution, absolutely brilliantly, the traction/stability control had thrown a fit and turned itself off with an error code by the end of the first lap, so that was one potential issue disabled (everything was fine after cycling the ignition) . Other than that it was far far better than I could have hoped. For a supposedly staid and stogy manufacturer it was brilliant, yes it understeered somewhat, but really not much, but it’s a bone stock car with stock alignment and tires so what do you expect. The handling really impressed me, it’s not a track car, but for a rear road car it was exemplary, it worked really well in the ever changing track with all the on and off camber turns, all in all I’m very happy with it. Next year I hope to have a good crack at stock class autocrossing so I’ll see then when I have the chance to experience it in a more controlled environment, but for now I’m delighted.

While the Ring was without doubt the motoring highlight of the trip, and my years come to that, there was still some more fun ahead. Once in England the Yorkshire Pennines and Wales provided a magical carpet of twisting, turning, climbing and diving narrow roads with blind crests, trees and yumps that would make any tarmac rally lover cry. They also provided hikers, sheep, traffic and cows to keep you in check, but those times when the road was clear along with the site line allowed me to relive the magic of my early driving days it rose to the occasion and the chassis really came into it’s own. With some of the really tight small roads that are really thousand year old cattle tracks that have been paved over, a stiff low sports car would have been crashing and bouncing off every crest, ridge and pothole, here the C30 allowed rapid, safe and controlled progress, the more I drive it the more I like it. They also provided the realization that the C30 isn’t in fact a small car. Yes back here anything but a Smart car or Mini make it look positively tiny, but over in Europe it’s without doubt a midsize vehicle and could feel quite large at times. I even changed car parks once as I didn’t like how tight the marked sports were!

So that was the end of our European odyssey, having dropped the car off in London for a $400 surcharge verses spending two days and $1,000 in gas and ferries we flew home to Detroit to wait for the car. Over the 2,200 miles we averaged 23mpg which wasn’t bad considering the 130mph blasts, the Ring, all the city driving and playing rally driver on my home turf, $11+ a gallon for gas was a bit hard to swallow, but it made coming home to $4.20 at that time a little easier.

Four weeks later and two to three weeks quicker than we’d been told the car was waiting to be picked up at Suburban Volvo in Troy. Picking it up and driving again is just making me appreciate it more. The lag free instant response is great for getting though traffic; it’s still an unusual site so it turns heads and illicit comments everywhere. As the car was still on Swedish plates at first waiting for my Michigan plate to arrive I spent literally hours explaining that yes you can buy the car here, no it’s not a gray market import, yes I know I’m a foreigner but it is an American spec car over and over again. It’s one thing to do that at a gas station or mall, but impossible in traffic at he Dream cruise, in the end I gave up on cruise nights, and when asked where I was from faked my best accent and shouted ‘Sveden’ back at them, it made the night go by a lot easier.

Bergplatz 1, 53520 Nerburg Germany http://www.burgstube.com martin.j.bird@btinternet.com

(1) Note, for 2009 model year the OSD program pricing for C30 models is the same as MSRP less $795 destination and the $300 special order charge associated with most options. This still ends up being approx. $1,000 off sticker plus two airline tickets and a great vacation and memories

Oh, the title is "2008 a Vacation odyssey"

nice article.. makes me want the C30 more and a trip to the ring even more so

We've had an S40 for a couple of years now, and I keep telling anyone who'll listen its a really top-notch family sedan, and surprisingly reasonably priced, too. Decent suspension and power, extremely comfortable, and SOLID.

I agree with you on the auto, though. Sucks the life right out of them. I'm very glad to have a stick, and think it's a real shame the S40 isn't offered with one anymore.

And yeah, I want a C30.

Yup, I love the C30, I caught the last Detroit Council autocross of the year in 08, I want to catch all the Belle Isle events this year if I can. If I can do enough events to remember how to drive I think it can do reasonably well in Street tire GS.

Great story. I would love to get a C30 someday.

Great story, very engaging and well written. Makes me want to take a C30 for a test drive when I'm looking at XC90s for the Wife over the next few weeks. BTW, loved my old CSVT, glad to see that the C30 is a worthy successor in the Ford corporate family (if not for long).

Letting my old editor hat slip on for a sec, I assume you copy-pasted so you'll want to fix these 2 things before part 2 is published. 3rd paragraph 1st sentence the town of Nurburg is not capitalized when is should be. Last full paragraph, "elicit" not "illicit" unless you're getting those kinds of comments.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Yup, I love the C30, I caught the last Detroit Council autocross of the year in 08, I want to catch all the Belle Isle events this year if I can. If I can do enough events to remember how to drive I think it can do reasonably well in Street tire GS.

Very nicely written Adrian I'll be sure to look you up if I see your car at a Council event. I'll be driving a Subaru SVX. I used to run in STX but sold that car and will now be in SM.

Todd