Here is something "kind of" related...

On my way home today, I was stopped at a red light on a four-lane road. About 1/4-mile ahead, I would have to be in the left lane as that is where my intersection for my home is. I was on the 2nd lane from the right (my demo is a 2003 S60 AWD) and I was waiting egerly for the light to turn green to get a jump on everyone. Next to me was a college kid with a VW Golf (I would not have to worry about him) whereas on "my" lane (far left) there was a young punk with a Dodge pickup that sported a very throaty exhaust sound (at idle!) and a big "V8 5.9L R/T" on its front fender, close to the headlights. He saw me looking at the light and anticipated so, of course, he started revving up! Well, I thought "I will give it a go and I doubt that I will beat him but if I do, great, I will get to the light anyway since the Golf would not matter (if it did, I was screwed as there were LOTS of cars behind all of us)...if he beat me, again no biggie as I would still have enough time to cross over to the far left; only my "ego" would be bruised! So, here he was, revving that big "burgerburner" V8, making a racket! As the light turns green, he takes off peeling away; he must have left at least 500 miles worth of rubber on the street, I also take off but the...Golf is antagonizing the...Dodge pick up! Well, I beat the Golf fairly easily but the Dodge is slightly ahead of me until the 2.5T kicked into (I think) 3rd gear...boy, it felt like an afterburner!!! Can I say that the 5.9L V8 lost clearly (not very easily though)? I was, first, surprised as to how powerful that truck was and I was also surprised as to how much torque the new 2.5T engine has! It really amazed me! This car feels almost like an 850 Turbo!

If you have not driven the new AWD...try it out! Huge difference from the 2001 and 2002 models. I cannot wait to drive the 2004 S60 2.5T (FWD)...without the extra weight of AWD, it must be a true rocket! I also believe that the 2004 V70 2.5T will be very successful.

Yannis