Vehicle Performance

Recently I drove about 700 miles in one day in a fully loaded (at least 2000lbs of stuff) Volvo XC90. The xc90 is a model 2004, has a 4 speed geartronix manumaticl, a straight six engine and somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 lbft of torque. On the drive I drove across 199 to grants pass. 199 is actually a nice road near the coast and has excellent corners for setting up a rhythm. The problem is that a loaded xc90 with a 4 speed is not a MiniS or anything even resembling a sports car. Never the less, when I was beset by a Camero I decided to play a little, by simply maintaining the speed limit through the corners I managed to walk away from a Camero in an SUV. The trick was loading up the suspension in advance of the corner. I would track out in the opposite direction of the corner and then flick in to the corner in advance so as to transfer the suspended load to the outside before initiating the turn in earnest. Also, all actions and adjustments had to be extremely fluid because the car tended to develop a rocking motion with the slightest jerk of the wheel. Surprisingly the manumatic worked well, although I was only shifting between 2nd and 3rd, using the cutoff speed of 55mphish, of course down shifting while the suspension was loaded and the tires' traction maxed out would be folly. I fully realize that without my experiences in racing schools I would have been in trouble, and had the Camero driver had any clue about how to drive he would easily outclassed my xc90. It was a fun little adventure.