The Volvo V60 is powered by a a turbocharged 3 litre inline six cylinder that starts out life generating 300 HP and 325 pound feet of torque. But thanks to some software from Polestar, this same engine now puts out 325 HP and 354 pound feet of torque. The Polestar software upgrade delivers host of tweaks to the engine control unit that delivers a lot more speed and torque without having to swap engine parts and it maintains your fuel economy. It works exceptionally well to motivate this the V60 from 0 to 6 in 5.3 seconds according to Dynolicious which is what all the cool kids use to test 0 – 60 times. I also should mention, that I felt no discernible turbo lag. That’s a very good thing.
The V60 has a six speed automatic transmission that can be run in three modes:
- Shift it to “D” and the transmission is unbelievably smooth. I could not feel it shift at all. It was incredibly smooth.
- If you slide the gear shift left so that it is set in “S” mode and leave it there, the transmission shifts on its own a more aggressively. In this mode, you can feel the car shift gears, but it is not objectionable.
- In that left most position, you can shift it yourself by pushing the gear shift up or down, or by using the paddle shifters on the steering wheel. Unlike some other vehicles that shifted gears slowly or didn’t let me shift at all (because I was never really in full control of the transmission), this transmission shifted the instant that I pulled on the paddle shifters. The reason being that Volvo tweaked the software that controls the transmission to deliver up to 30% faster shifts in gears 3 to 6 and up to 50% faster shifts in gears 1 – 2. It’s very impressive for those who like to shift gears themselves. Another note, the paddle shifters work regardless of what position the gear shift lever is in which is something that you can’t do in every vehicle that has paddle shifters. That way you can hold a gear when you need it.
All the power goes right to the wheels thanks to the Instant Traction All-Wheel-Drive system which can alter the torque from front to rear to make the car go forward as fast as possible and eliminate torque steer. It also includes torque vectoring which shunts power from side to side to almost eliminate understeer. That combined with the firm suspension that does an great job of controlling body roll and making it really easy to switch lanes with minimal steering input makes the V60 a joy to drive. You’ll feel bumps on really rough roads, though I’m guessing that the low profile tires and the low ride height contribute to this. It won’t upset the car though which is good. As an aside, I strongly recommend that you take speed bumps as slow as possible as this car will not like you if you don’t. I’m not bothered by this as Volvo is close to having the perfect balance between comfort and performance handling. But if you want a more cushioned feel, you might want to look at a “normal” V60 at your local Volvo dealer.
Now you can adjust the amount of steering input via the infotainment system using one of three settings. That makes it easy to allow you to set the car up for a downtown environment, or a track day. I had it set as medium which was a good setup for me as it gave me the right amount of steering input in any situation. Another thing to note, the turning radius is incredibly tight on the V60. Also via the infotainment system, you can turn off DTSC (Dynamic Traction and Stability Control) which makes this car even more fun. Though I would only suggest this if you have the required driving skill to control the car without crashing it.
In terms of noise, there’s only minimal tire noise and no wind noise to speak of, and you only hear the engine when you floor it (and it sounds really nice I must say). That’s very good. When it comes to gas consumption, I’m currently getting an average of 10.5 L/100 KM and I’m not exactly driving in a way that encourages fuel economy. That was something that I wasn’t expecting as performance cars aren’t known for fuel economy.
Bottom line? The Volvo V60 is a great daily driver that handles performance driving well.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at the interior which is exceptional in almost every way. Stay tuned for that.
BBM Protected for Balance-Enabled Devices Brings End-to-End Secure Messaging to More Users
Posted in Commentary with tags BlackBerry on August 12, 2014 by itnerdBlackberry today announced via a blog post that BBM Protected is now available on BlackBerry Balance-enabled devices. This expands the compatible devices beyond the BBOS and BlackBerry 10 in “workplace-only” mode to devices using BlackBerry Balance to serve dual-functions inside and outside of work.. Here’s a quote from the blog post:
Today we started phase 2 of the BBM Protected roll out, adding support for BlackBerry devices using Balance technology. This step allows BBM Protected to work in BYOD, Balance, and COPE (Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled) environments as well as COBO (Corporate Owned, Business Only).
For security conscious organizations using Balance technology we’re excited to be able to offer enhanced BBM Protected level encryption to the intra-company BBM messages being sent between employees inside the company as well as inter-company BBM messages being sent to employees at other companies using BBM Protected.
Just as before, enabling BBM Protected for Balance enabled devices is as simple as turning on an IT policy through the BES console. And for end users, the experience remains as simple and hassle free too – keep using BBM as you do today! End users will continue to use the same BBM app they currently have and BBM messages to other BBM Protected users (either at their company or at other companies using BBM Protected) are encrypted automatically using the advanced BBM Protected encryption. Messages sent to friends and family use the standard BBM encryption.
This builds upon the momentum created by their original BBM Protected announcement in June. It should be interesting to see how this is received.
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