Ancient Resurrection: The Masters Historic Festival at Brands Hatch
Image Credit: BrandsHatch.co.uk
“A demon of the ancient world. This foe is beyond any of you.”
Private Fleet Car Review: Volvo S60 D4 Luxury.
Slinky. Sexy. Good looking. Curvaceous. Words once used to describe the better half of Abba are now used to describe Volvo cars. The D4 S60 stands tall in this list and A Wheel Thing gets reacquainted with the good looking Swede.
Powersource.
It’s a fuel efficient (4.2L/100 km, from a 67.5L tank) 2.0L diesel, with 133 kW (4250 rpm) and a torque figure that helps the acceleration (7.4 seconds to 100 km/h) of 400 Newton metres. What’s important about this is where it’s delivered: from 1750 to 2500 rpm. This gives almost unrivalled flexibility, safe overtaking and off the line, head snapping, acceleration. A 1614 kg dry weight helps, too…
Bolted behind (or, in the case of a transversely mounted engine, next to), the engine is an impressive eight speed auto.
It’s smooth, slick, virtually imperceptible in its shifts although there was some noticeable vibration at low revs. Naturally there’s a paddle shifter setup inside but the tractability of the diesel really negates the need for it to be used.
Road Surfaces Over The Millennia
If I were a better artist, I’d love to create a wordless book tracing the development of a road across from a single game trail to a modern superhighway. History is pretty fascinating, so let’s take a look at how road surfaces have changed over the millennia. I’ll just stick to road surfaces, as including the wheres and whys of roading would make this article far too long to read in one sitting.
If you’ve ever seen a house where they park on the grass during winter, you soon see why. All that pressure and squelching soon becomes deep, thick mud, where wheels get bogged. Shortly after the wheel was invented (around 5000 BC), road surfacing followed shortly afterwards.
Private Fleet Car Review: 2016 Subaru Outback Diesel.
A Wheel Thing greatly appreciates the support that Subaru Australia has offered since mid 2012. As an independent reviewer, A Wheel Thing survives on that support, so when a company offers up two new examples of their much respected Outback, to do a back to back review, that support is deeply appreciated.
As the vehicles are almost identical, this review will focus on the main difference (the engine) and the minor accompanying differences. For the overview, please click: http://blog.privatefleet.com.au/buy-new-car/private-fleet-car-review-2016-subaru-outback-3-6l/
The diesel tested was the entry level, non Premium version.
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