Drive Wire: March 3, 2016
Volvo’s latest T8, the Apollo Arrow, Alfa trim, a new Fitbit, and dirt track hijinks.
Hey guys, it’s Kristin Condon and this is Drive Wire for Thursday, March 3.
The Geneva Motor Show is now in full swing and yes, that means we get to see more of the beautiful new Volvo V90 wagon. Keep in mind that Geneva is where all the supercars and luxury sedans take their bows, and this wagon is getting just as much attention as anything. The T8 model with all-wheel-drive will put out a combined 410 horsepower from a 2-liter twin-charged hybrid engine. If that weren’t enough, Volvo’s new infotainment center is also getting rave reviews. It’s got a few of us seriously thinking about calling our bankers.
In supercar news, we take a look at the Apollo Arrow. For those of you who don’t know the brand, Apollo used to be Gumpert, which made a car called the Apollo, which lapped the Nurburgring almost as fast anything else ever did. But the company failed, presumably because it was called Gumpert. Now they’re back, called Apollo, and they have this lovely angular beast, which they’ve called the Arrow. It’s based on the Gumpert car, but uses a heavily modified 1,000 horsepower 4-liter twin-turbo V8 from Audi. No price has yet been announced, but it’s safe to say it won’t be cheap.
Alfa Romeo has announced trim levels for it’s much-anticipated and much-delayed Giulia. First out the gate will be the $70,000 Guadri-Foglio, the high-performance top trim level M3 fighter, with a 505-horsepower twin-turbo V6. After that things go down a peg with the base Giulia and the Giulia sport pushing out 276-horsepower via a 2 liter turbo four, with available 6-speed manual and 8-speed automatic transmissions. And finally there’s a diesel we’re not getting in America. Differences between the base and sport trim levels will mostly be the trappings of the smartly styled interior, which believe me, is where we’ll be as soon as possible.
Today in gear we focus on your health. The new Fitbit Blaze is a full-function fitness watch from the exercise gadget kingpin, and it’s got it all – heart rate monitor, progress tracking, music control, and even built-in workouts. Plus, it does all the basic smartwatch alerting and scheduling that you’re likely to need. This is definitely something on our wishlist. Check it out at fitbit.com.
In today’s ridiculous video, we leave the comfort of pavement and head to the dirt tracks. Check out Cam McCaul tearing around southern Utah in a beautiful display of aerial acrobatics and sheer athleticism. Could we get that much airtime? Probably, but landing is a whole other story.
That’s it for today’s edition of Drive Wire. For more, be sure to come back to thedrive.com, and follow us @thedrive on all your favorite social media platforms.
