5.1 MB download http://idisk.mac.com/barrysharp...s.mov

Whooops - I'll fix the link as it's not working....

It's fixed now.

Here's the Window Media player version

9.2 MB download http://idisk.mac.com/barrysharp...s.wmv

P.S. Apologise for the movies being so Sharp centric - but my son only had eyes for his father's Flash Green.

P.P.S. My R ran thru almost a tank of gas duriing the day and computer display showed around 11 mpg.

The Lineup at start of the day.

Placing the right wheels over the "7" road marker to enter the straight away just after moving to 4th and then hard on the thottle.

The speed limit.
Modified by barrysharp at 7:35 PM 8-9-2006

Modified by barrysharp at 7:40 PM 8-9-2006

Modified by barrysharp at 10:32 PM 8-11-2006

So, Barry, was your R the fastest one on the track? It certainly looked (and sounded) like it was. The R really great and I especially liked the final footage with the S8 in the back of the pack.

I hope everyone had a great time. Where's the emoticon for "jealous"?

- Tryg

"Comfort makes the car comfortable. Sport makes the car less comfortable. And Advanced makes it uncomfortable." - Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear

I'll figure it out later but for now I want to say thanks Barry (or was it your son Duncan?) for shooting some footage.

Don't know why I'm still up, but to respond to your comment on the video... I also gave up waiting for the file to load and returned to my work in another program only to hear the video playing a couple of minutes later. It's a very large file and takes a long time to load. Good luck.

Any chance you're joining us this Saturday?

- Tryg

"Comfort makes the car comfortable. Sport makes the car less comfortable. And Advanced makes it uncomfortable." - Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear

The emphasis was on learning and improving mechanics and driving the line and there were only two passing zones. That being said Barry, BlueDevil and KR900 were undoubtedly the quickest R's in Group 1. Group 2 would have to have been Rollie.

People just kept grinning and laughing out loud at KR900's wagon screaming past the wall at WOT coming out of Turn 8 where Duncan was shooting video from.

One of the highlights was Don the lead instructor doing a fast lap with owners on a ride-along. He was tossing the car around the track with DSTC completely off and then saying "That's about 7/10's of what your car can do". Really emphasized where car capabilities and driver ability disconnnect.

I'm the proud owner of a couple cone corpses and some pretty chunked up PS A/S front tires and an experience I won't soon forget. It was heaps 'o' fun, sorry you couldn't make it Tryg.

2004 S60 R, MT - SOLD
Black Sapphire/Nordkap
IPD (MTE) Stage II ECU, TME DP & Exhaust, RKelly CAI, BMC filter,
V1 (hardwired), Heico Pedals & Pins, 12" Diamond Audio sub

Quote, originally posted by BlueDevil »

StaggR, you're being modest. Among us in group 1 that watched your group, we LOVED the sound of that modified Svenske exhaust screaming around turn 8. It was great to see both you and Rollie overtake a bunch of Porsche's, too! What an awesome day! I had several instructors comment on how well our Rs did...to quote one, "My god, how far has Volvo come!"

Was that a FG wagon that I saw on the starting line?

Nice job all, hope you enjoyed it!

Coming soon: PhMIC

Not to worry Rollie - I'm creating a Windows Media Player version and will post it here within a few moments. I'll edit original post with the WMV link. The WMV file is around 9.5 MB in size.

As I said at the finishing debrief under the white tent - It will be boring returning to work next day - sooooo, guess what I did today to wind down some - took a day's vacation. ...and hey, I didn't even think of talking with you about your BT kit installation which I'll be having mine installed tomorrow.

I must say during the whole day there's was really nothing on my mind except for the driving experience. It sure consumed my FULL attention.

What a blast for all of us to really get our Rs up to speed and for finding out some of its limits. I think the 'child avoidance' exercise was really surprising for me. At 60 mph it requires a lot of steering input and the guts to simply swing that wheel thru at least 90 degs at this speed with brake pedal to the floor and ABS working hard to avoid that cone/child and then straightening up. The R was truly impressive at accomplishing this. My son wasn't so fortunate as he got the pedals confused (he normally drives his S60 T5 auto) and did some serious agricultural racing and gave one of the instructors a real fright.

It was really fun having Kevin/KR900's wagon on my tail at times - and by golly he made his wagon really move along.

My instructor was truly impressed with the Volvo R. He was most pleased when he could smell the brake pads at work as he said he loves that smell. I had no idea of my speed during the lapping sessions - I simply drove the car on the straight-away with throttle at 100% and was surprised I had opportunity to shift into 5th toward the end. I simply loved that right sweeper at the end of the straight away and instructor simply said - "keep the throttle on" and shortly after said "brake, brake, brake, brake", which I did of course and at times could feel the ABS at work. Exiting was a dream and is something hard to do on the street.

My son kept saying afterwards - thanks dad, thanks dad, thanks dad. We were both thoroughly drained with excitement at the end of the day.

What a fantastic day guys - I sensed everyone had their adrenaline high and thanks to Lead Foot 60 for starting the original posting indicating Barrier's 3-day event. Cheers to the event host Barrier also. What customer service.

Are we addicted yet and did your R talk to you ?

Modified by barrysharp at 7:26 PM 8-9-2006

It was Lead Foot 60's wagon.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=...&om=1

I agree, in Group 2 both StaggR and Rollie were kicking butt. It was awesome to watch. I'm glad I provided some entertainment with my wagon screaming past the grandstand. I had such a great time. I drove to Portland this morning, what a let down to be on the crowded interstate.

I'll try to get a few photos of mine posted soon.

"KR in this case stands for 'King of the Road'." - Car and Driver

Looks like you guys had fun, downloading that vid now via narrowband YAY!

Slowrey, wanna get somethign started

"KR in this case stands for 'King of the Road'." - Car and Driver

I just wanted to say thanks for such a great show. I am lucky to have been able to "volunteer" for such an event. It truly has inspired me to bite the bullit and buy my "R." I also really enjoyed meeting all of you yesterday. What a fun group of guys. Hopefully we'll all get to know each other better and have more events like that one.

Tom

PS Kevin, I think the sunscreen was a little too late.

Sandberg Northwest Volvo
Lynnwood, WA 98037

Bill

Hang on a mo about this. You should see that Porshe SUV perform - it's a Porshe for heavens sake and drives extremely well. It sure didn't hang about during the lap sessions.

There was a Porshe Cayenne Turbo S with V8 in sparkling blue on display (courtesy of Barrier Motors) at the event. The Chief instructor Don Lord indicated that it was no SUV and drove marvelously well on the track in its stock form. Mind you, for $125,000 for this Porshe I wouldn't expect anything less - would you Barry ?

I would absolutely agree with this.

Going over the day's events I keep thinking of some of the little things, but quite important wrt to leaning better driving techniques, I learned about my car. One thing was moving from 5th to 3rd after braking extremely hard for the first big left turn coming off the straight-away I spoiled at least 2 perfect laps by fumbling going from 5th to 3rd by annoyingly selecting 1st instead. . Coming off the straight-away and into this left turn my speed was easily 100+. The instructor told me the best way for handling this was to simply pull back out of 5th into the 4th gate with clutch in and then quickly forward into 3rd. This worked perfectly for me and I never made the mistake again. This was just one of the lessons learned.

Incidentally, I don't believe I was really really pushing the car at anytime but did ocassionally use WOT for the straight-away traveling in 4th for the most part, and couple of times into 5th as I started to run out of steam.

Barry, thanks for the pictures and Duncan for the film clip.

It was truly an awesome day. I wanted to learn about the car's dynamics in a safe environment. The R has capabilities well beyond mine. According to my instructor, I did hit ~120 down the straight. And the brakes were incredible; effortlessly bringing the speed from 100+ down to 45 or 50 for the next turn. Overall, this was a very memorable experience.

My thanks to Barrier for hosting this outstanding event. I too, have been VERY impressed with Barrier and will look at them when we get our next Volvo...possibly a XC-70 for my sweetee

When I was watching the Group 1 (I was in Group 2) fly by, it was delightful to see all of the R's in showing their stuff. The Volvo R is a very impressive car; something we might not really understand if we hadn't had a chance to do this day. And I learned a lot which will help me be a safer driver on the street too.

Overall, a great event, thanks to all of the Barrier folks

I also just gave my R an oil/filter change and rotated the tires. They fared better than I would have thought. There was a little bit of chunking on the right side tires, and it seemed as though some of the rubber melted and then re-solidified back onto the tire tread. But I still have 7/32 left on all four tires. So...maybe I'll postpone the A/S for another year and drive one of the other two cars this winter.

Quote, originally posted by Lead Foot 60 »

...and it seemed as though some of the rubber melted and then re-solidified back onto the tire tread. But I still have 7/32 left on all four tires. So...maybe I'll postpone the A/S for another year and drive one of the other two cars this winter.

Nice group photo.

Really?

They just opened up an all day lapping program for Monday.

Otherwise Oct. 3 is the first afternoon session with any slots open.