We absolutely love the Volvo XC90 (currently retailing at RM418,888). If we were to rank the most usable vehicle we have tried, money no object, the XC90 will rank as one of the top 5, alongside the Kia Carnival, the G20 BMW 530i, the Volvo V60 T8, Peugeot 3008 and the Proton S70. Simply because it does so many things so well, that its range of usability and the flexibility is so broad. Its a one stop solution vehicle. Which is why it was the perfect companion for our 49th and 50th drive event that we have conducted since 2022 with the Route Hunters Community members. Here’s how it fared.
Perak Exploration Drive 2.0
At Route Hunters, we document the best driving roads in the country. Beyond it being just a drivers or riders paradise, these roads must feature a point of interest, and feature the best in local cuisine. We have marked 100 routes around Peninsular Malaysia alone that fit these prerequisites. We try to publish as much as we can about all these routes on our sites and social media channels. From 2022, we started organising drive experiences over these routes and the 20th was our 49th event where we explored some of the best hidden gem routes in the country. These routes were located deep in the heart of Perak.
Since the location of these routes were so far away from our start point in the Klang Valley, we decided to stay up in Taiping for the night after the drive. For this road trip the XC90 was spot on.
The highway drive
Our drive kicked off early on the 20th, with a straight 2.5 hour highway drive from our start point at the Route Hunters Garage in PJ to Kamunting toll plaza. The drive was a tiring one, sitting at a constant speed on a hot highway. But the Route Hunters crew at least were glad to be lounging in the comfortable cabin of the XC90. The seats offered amazing comfort especially for the front seats. There’s tonnes of space in the back with the 3rd row folded down, and you can move the 2nd row back to give loads of legroom. Overall the cabin is a really, REALLY nice place to hang out during a long haul drive.
The drive proper
The drive proper starts just outside Kamunting, on the A7 that heads towards an outpost called Kubu Gajah. This is where the drive becomes super interesting. What starts off with a wide open sweeping roads, after a narrow bridge turns into a set of narrow switchbacks. Its a drivers delight and this is where the XC90’s unexpected plus point shines. Its a really good handling car for its size. There’s very good body control from the air suspension system. Maybe its just us but the latest version XC90 with the 18.8kW battery pack has a little extra bounce on the back axle, however its a far cry from the XC60.
The 275 section front tyres helps turn the big and heavy SUV with surprising agility. The car does not feel wayward, it was a clean handling machine. The best handler in this class is the X5 hands down, but this is not too far behind.
After fuelling up
The 30km ride towards Kubu Gajah was just the start of the drive, after our fuel stop we ventured deeper into the state of Perak, trekking over more roads with barely any traffic. The roads are a different kind of twisty, with mild elevations as you tear past plantations. This was a complete workout for the cars at the back, with a highly modified GR Yaris keeping close with the rest of the convoy.
The headline attraction
After the town of Kampung Masjid, we trekked on the A6, a beautiful mountain pass that takes you from deep inside Perak to Lenggong. The elevation changes by 500 meters in just 10km and drops again for the same amount in the next 10km. Its super twisty, but unlike the last time we came here, this time the roads were relatively busy, by which we mean we saw 5 cars driving together on the road. This is due to the durian season that was taking place during the drive event, and everywhere all we saw were tonnes of durians and rambutans in abundance. If only we had brought our own cars…..
The highlight of this route is the Sungai Tebing Tinggi waterfall, which the road passes by. There’s a safe place for you to park your cars and take a stroll down the bridge. The view on either side is nothing short of spectacular. On one side its the vast valley, and on the other side is a spectacular waterfall. This place is best savoured during sunrise. But even in the afternoon sun scorching down on us this view was a great mix of spectacular and awesome.
Our lunch stop
Before we knew it we were at the bottom of the mountain. With a quick regroup we got to our lunch spot. The Breakfast by the River restaurant was truly hidden away from the rest of the surrounding. Set directly next to the Perak river, which was running almost clear compared to the Pahang river we experienced in the previous drive.
You can even see the fishes clearly from the riverbanks. Nestled next to that is a wooden structure and where the traditional Malay lunch was served. The portions were lovely and the taste were so good. Just what we needed after a full morning of drive. At this point, we had clocked 440km, with half of it on B roads alone.
After the hearty lunch, we would proceed to our overnight stop in Taiping.
Overnight in Taiping
We stayed at the Hotel Grand Baron in Taiping, located at a more quieter corner of the Taiping lake gardens. Most of the participants checked in to get some much deserved sleep. After sun down, we took a stroll around town to reach the dinner spot, which was based out of a renovated bungalow. The team at Delicious Bites Taiping were more than generous with their portions, with each dish coming back to back, with our drive participants unable to finish them. You want to be stuffed full with good food, definitely try them, especially their Fried chicken chop.
The whole day’s driving had charged up the on board battery pack, giving us an effective range of about 40km. That was more than enough to run around Taiping on pure EV, saving our fuel for the next day.
The Next Day
Needless to say we were completely knocked out from the day before. We just concluded nearly 450km of driving on some of the most spectacular roads in the country. But it was not the end. We still had our 50th event, our maiden trackday for 2024 taking place at the Dato Sagor circuit. That means after gobbling up the hearty and delicious breakfast spread at the Grand Baron Hotel in Taiping, we had to drive down 100km to the circuit to welcome the trackday participants.
Riding the WCE
Once again some of the crew members got some much deserved shuteye in the back seat of the XC90 in preparation to getting baked under the hot sun at the track. The powertrain of the XC90 was more than sufficient in cruising at high speeds on the highway, thanks to its supercharged, turbocharged 2.0 engine producing 300bhp and 400Nm on its own. Those are close to Audi A6 3.0 supercharged numbers. All the while charging the battery pack.
The Route Hunters Trackday
It was quite a unique site to see an XC90 Volvo leading Porsche’s and even a Mclaren around this beautiful track. Nestled on a delta over the Perak river, this track is the perfect representation of the Malaysia touge roads. If you want to know how it feels to go all out on our Touge roads, this track is where you do it.
The trackday itself was exciting as there was a weird and varied mix of vehicles that were present. From GT3’s right down to a gutsy turbocharged Kancil, we had everything in between. Even the latest FL5 Type R and a lightly tuned FK8R. The event was also attended by the members of the Porsche Regal Club, who were extremely enthusiastic bunch. The fastest laptime came from the pink GT3 who drove a clinical and clean lap, setting a time of 48.67 seconds in the hands of Tengku Aaran.
Returning home
By the time the trip ended we are completely spent, absolutely drained, and while we sat at one of the notable Wan Tan mee shops in Bidor with some of the trackday participants. Being a Sunday, traffic was starting to build up and we had to still drive 140km back home. Once again the adaptive cruise control on the Volvo, which we consider to be the gold standard of the industry, took the stress away from driving. After a couple of conversations, and a few songs, we were back in KL and headed to our garage to proceed home.
Consumption of the vehicle
Overall, we refuelled RM100 worth of RON95 for this car from the time we started driving on Friday (at which it had a full tank of fuel) till returning home. Which works out to be just above 10.5 litres / 100km worth of consumption over the distance covered. Mind you we were not making an eco run and were fully gunning it throughout the two days, except when driving around taiping.
Drive it sensibly though and during a normal work commute and back you can average 5.1l/100km. That’s better consumption than Proton’s Iriz hatch on the same route through same kind of traffic. This is in a big way thanks to its massive 18.8kWh battery pack that gives a claimed 90km pure electric driving range. This helps store a whole lot more battery power to use more while driving through the PJ areas which has loads of start stop driving, and reserve the petrol powertrain for constant highway cruising.
Overall
The hectic weekend came after a gruelling work week with loads of things taking place simultaneously. Needless to say we were completely spent trying to ensure the Overnight Drive 2.0 and the RH Trackday took place without any hiccups. It was not our first rodeo, having organised back to back events like this before last year. Hence why we knew the huge importance of having a comfortable and versatile lead vehicle.
Theres absolutely no need to establish how safe Volvo cars are, after all they went as far as mandating a 180kph limit on all their vehicles in the pursuit of safety. That’s incredibly bold by any brands standards. But the other merits include the ergonomically designed seats, which ensures its the best fit for the human spine. This is where the comfort truly comes from. Everything else from the air suspension, Bowers and Wilkins stereo, and size are all complimenting ingredients.
The fact that its powertrain and chassis is good enough to cope with a Route Hunters drive event is just a bonus. Not a bad way to cover a chunk of the country over the weekend.