Form and Function

Part Convertible, part coupe. Part chamber music, part open-air rock. The all new Volvo C70 is a bit of everything, and is designed to fulfill every function amazingly well. Volvo's Studio Chief Designer Guy Burgoyne was in Singapore recently to give us a sneak preview of the car and tell us how the car and Volvos are designed to be an integral part of life.

The Volvo C70 originally started as a coupe, and then the design team headed by Fedde Talsma took the roof away and redesigned the car’s key features, resulting in a car that looks its best both with the top up and down. Learning from the original C70 launched in 1997, the current C70 retains much of the original dimensions and is designed as a complete four seater with an extremely roomy rear half. All the signature Volvo lines are there, including the comet trail profile line that runs the full length of the car’s side, the shouldered rear taillight cluster, and the distinctive wedge shaped bonnet line. Burgoyne explains that the qualities put into the car’s design are typical of the Volvo line and all of the legendary safety aspects, including window curtain airbags, are well taken care of.

The car’s sturdy construction and high shoulders of the window sills certainly inspire confidence, and most awe inspiring is the three section automatic folding roof designed by Pininfarina. It folds neatly into the boot while still offering plenty of storage space. Despite its triple segmented design, the steel roof snaps on solidly and securely, all in under 30 seconds. Being a Volvo, it retains all its practicality despite the fact that it is a convertible.

Clean surfaces, easy to access storage areas that lock whenever you lock the doors, and intuitively placed buttons make the car a great drive for anyone who has never stepped into it before. The revolutionary thin center stack that first appeared on the Volvo S40 is considered as one of Designer Burgoyne’s finest moments, and it appears on the C70 as well. This concept frees up a considerable amount of space behind the center console and is gives the car’s interior a distinctive look that is more practical than many other contemporary designs!

The range topping C70 T5 features a 2.5 litre, turbocharged 5 cylinder inline engine. Delivering 220 bhp at 5000 rpm and an amazingly smooth torque curve that holds its maximum torque of 320 Nm from 1500 to 4800 rpm, the car accelerates smoothly across the entire rev range. It moves from 0 to 100 km/h in exactly eight seconds, and the four wheel anti-lock disc brakes bring it to a stop again. The front wheel drive vehicle will be sold in Singapore with a 5 speed semi-automatic Geartronic transmission. Buried deep in the specifications but nonetheless impressive is the fact that the electro-hydraulic steering system steers the rear wheels as well as the front for neat cornering.

Expect to see the C70 on Singaporean roads by the middle of 2006!

Credits: Lionel Kong