Marlow to Milan, on one tank of fuel

So exactly how far can you travel on one tank of fuel? This was the question posed a couple of months ago when first thinking about how to launch Volvo's new DRIVe range of environmental large cars. A large car with a small 1.6-litre diesel engine. That won't work, surely!

Well, the UK's first motoring writers to try the car seem to have decided that it's not actually an oxymoron after all. Settling off from Marlow at 9:00am yesterday morning, the six cars were driven in an economical yet spirited way across France, arriving at the overnight stop in Metz in fine form.

The challenge of seeing if the car could actually make it to Milan seemed to have griped them. Once they realised that it would probably do it, the secondary challenge of how many miles could remain on the range by the time they reached Milan took over. Cloak and Dagger prevailed, with questions of who had what range remaining dominating conversation.

As I write, the first car is approximately 60 miles from Milan and after about 740 miles, is still showing 160 miles remaining, indicating a possible 900 mile range. In a car the size of a Volvo S80, that'd have been unthinkable only a few years ago.

We'll be making a video of the journey with two well-known comedians so call back soon to follow their exploits.

The campaign ball's rolling

Well, we're 24 hours in and I didn't really know what to expect, but we certainly seem to have struck a chord with the public and media mood. Checking out Google this morning under the search 'Volvo cars' and reference to the campaign was the 4th highest ranking story. Searching 'Congestion charge' delivered a similiar result.

The dynamics that sit behind a Google search are still a mystery to me but what I do know is that a result like that doesn't happen by accident. Lots of influential people are talking and writing about it, and reading it.

And the snowball should just keep rolling. Articles like this - http://www.carsuk.net/volvo-gunning-for-boris-over-london-congestion-charge/ - show me that we weren't the first to think about this, just the first to do something about it.

So if you haven't already, sign up at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Emissions-Equality/119945287541 or http://twitter.com/eequality or www.volvo.co.uk and show your support for righting the wrong and achieving Emission Equality.

Now I understand Twitter

Like many people, I've been trying many different things in the New Media world, trying to understand how, and why, they work. And there is a easy comparison to make between the worlds of social media and alternative fuels in cars. If we could look forward 5 or 10 years from now, we'd understand which technology, or technologies, would win through, and we'd all be backing that horse. However, for now, we haven't yet invented the time machine so we are all stuck trying to work out which road to take.

And one of those avenues is Twitter. I've been Tweating for some time now, but never really understood why. Why would anybody care about what I'm doing now. Yes, in a personal context, your friends might be interested but in a broader, work-based environment, who cares? I have enough trouble keeping up with my own life rather than worrying about what's going on in the minute-by-minute minutiae of their lives.

But the eureka moment arrived this week. Social Media guru Carolyn Watt from Volvo's Social Media agency, Mindshare suggested I don't think about it as an insight into follower's lives, more like an alternative, and more democratic, version of Google.

And in those few intervening days, it's become an invaluable assset. Ask Twitter a question, and all of your followers respond with the answer. Not a computer-generated answer from Google who's supporters in the background have paid a bob or two for Google to provide the answer, but an answer from friends or colleagues who's input you truly value. Now I get it.

Volvo S40 DRIVe awarded What Car? Green Car of the Year

In my recent blog post http://torquetalking.blogspot.com/2009/06/volvo-car-uk-takes-first-social-media.html I eluded to some big news for the Volvo brand happening last night. Well, those avid web watchers will now know that last night, at an event hosted by the What Car? editorial team and The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, the Volvo S40 DRIVe was awarded their coverted Green Car of the Year title.

Sorry not to have brought you the news at 20:00 last night as promised but I was out celebrating.

But I'm also really pleased that we've also taken our first steps into the Social Media world in the process. When such a fantastic opportunity presents itself, you make the most of it. So we've got both a traditional PR campaign and Social Media campaign now running and in a few days, we'll compare and contrast the results to see how the coverage has come in.

They're under starters orders, and they're off......

Boy they must be annoyed

Much of my interest in cars stems from a passion in motorsport. I was racing dragsters with my father from the tender age of 10, I've raced 100cc TKM karts and my first job was working at McLaren F1 racing team in 1988 - the year of Prost and Senna.

So, as an avid motorsport fan, I sat down on the sofa to watch another Formula One race yesterday. Now, a year ago, you could have pretty much have predicted what the podium was going to look like, because it'd been the same for a good few years. It would probably have been a Ferrari or McLaren winning, with a BMW Sauber driver standing alongside them, spraying the champers over the adoring team members and fans.

Not this year however. The change of rules has meant that the form book has gone out of the window and a new guard is now installed. Well, actually a quite old, slightly bearded guard. But at least he's a Brit and we haven't been able to say that since Damon Hill's days. So, all change and all's well then?

Not quite. I suspect that all is not okay in the Boardroom at Honda at the moment for it was those Executives who, at the end of last year, decided that they'd spent enough time and money on Formula One and needed to exit, and quickly. With only a few championship points to show for hundreds of millions of dollars of spend over successive years, they needed to get out.

And along comes the team's knight in shining armour, in the guise of eminently talented Ross Brawn, who buys the outfit on the cheap, gets some funding from another bearded fellow, gels the team together and hey presto, pulls together a potentially championship-winning team in a matter of weeks.

I'm not sure how "Oh Bugger" translates in Japanese, but I suspect you can hear it being said in a good few Honda offices at the moment.

Hay fever relief from Volvo

Volvo is offering relief to millions of hay fever sufferers facing another summer of streaming eyes and sudden sneezes by providing a cabin of safe haven. All new Volvo models are fitted as standard with pollen filters and cabin air quality monitoring systems to create the healthiest passenger environment possible.

Hay fever effects 20 per cent of the UK population and with symptoms like sneezing and itchy eyes liable to affect a motorists ability to drive safely, it's a situation Volvo takes very seriously.

So seriously in fact, that it fits pollen filters to all its vehicles and has developed air quality monitoring systems that have been recommended by the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association. The technology ensures that air passing through the vehicle is filtered to remove pollen and other airborne allergens before they reach occupants in the cabin.

Volvo has two solutions to improve the air quality inside the car - Air Quality System (AQS) with a pollen filter and the Clean Zone Interior Package (CZIP) - both of which are designed to provide relief to the millions of people in the UK who suffer with hay fever.

The Air Quality System and Pollen Filter are standard on all new Volvos and ensures that air inside the cabin is as clean as possible by continuously monitoring the amount of incoming air pollutants such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone. If it senses the levels are rising too high, it temporarily closes the exterior air inlets. It also features a layer of active charcoal to remove odours and ground level ozone before they reach the cabin. The AQS works in conjunction with the standard Electronic Climate Control (ECC) to ensure a comfortable and safer environment inside the car, which is especially important for corporate drivers accustomed to spending many hours behind the wheel.

The Clean Zone Interior Package provides an interior with materials that avoid collecting dust, such as natural rubber mats instead of dust-collecting textile ones, and upholstery that conforms to the regulations set out by the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association. It also includes a unique remotely controlled cabin ventilation system which automatically refreshes the car's interior as soon as it is unlocked via the remote key fob to ensure stale air is removed as quickly as possible when the driver climbs aboard. CZIP is available as an option on S80, V70, XC70 and XC60 and costs £125 (including VAT).

"Millions of people in the UK suffer from hay fever and other allergies, so it makes sense for us to focus attention on improving air quality and minimise any potential safety risk that could arise from an allergic reaction while driving," said Peter Rask, Volvo Car UK managing director.

"Our concern isn't just restricted to new vehicle buyers either. Pollen filters are replaced as part of the regular routine service at Volvo dealers, so the benefits also apply to customers purchasing older, used vehicles too."

One-Two in Sweden

The 2009 Swedish Touring Car Championship season opened this weekend at Mantorp Park and the season-opener turned into a whitewash for Volvo fans. The Volvo team Polestar with drivers Robert Dahlgren and Tommy Rustad led from the front all weekend, with Dahlgren claiming pole position and Rustad qualifing in second position on the starting grid. The race itself was equally impressive. The Volvo drivers defended their positions through Mantorps infamous start corner and continued to pull away lap after lap. Fourteen laps later, Volvo had a double victory in the bag. Dahlgren won and Rustad took second place.

Proof, if ever it were needed, that the golden days of Volvo's Touring cars where 850 Estates went wheel-to-wheel with BMWs and Vauxhalls, aren't over just yet.