In this week's issue:

• C2 GT Goes Like Hot Crepes
• 'R'acing Volvo Lacks Heart

  C2 GT Goes Like Hot Crepes

Citroen knows how to make cars with that elusive quality - youth appeal.

The Saxo VTR combined the right elements of urban cool, sporty image and low price with, crucially, insurance costs lower than a shopping trolley.

The new C2 VTR is doing the same thing. It looks funky, gets a bright 110bhp engine and is just Group 6 insurance. In appealing to the Playstation generation, Citroen has fitted an unusual gearbox to the VTR. Called Sensodrive, it's an automatic whose gears can be operated via paddles on the steering wheel. Very Playstation, but it has its problems. It simply isn't sporty - the gearchanges take forever and that blunts acceleration dramatically.

VTR DNA

Now Citroen has the answer to this conundrum - a VTR with a manual gearchange. Say hello to the C2 GT, an even sportier urban roller skate than the VTR. The C2 GT shares 99% of its DNA with the VTR. Where it differs is that it strips out a few kilos of weight, adds rally-style white wheels, a new front grille and a five-speed manual gearbox.

Thank God the gearchange has been sorted. Our one major quibble with the C2 VTR has always been its paddle-shift gearbox. While the Sensodrive automatic is brilliantly easy to use and is fine for the city, its ponderous upchanges are the opposite of what a sporty car should be. The solution is at hand for the keen driver - a brilliant new invention called the five-speed manual gearbox. While it is certainly not the best gearbox around - its throw is too long and imprecise - it fits the C2's sporty profile much better. Here is a clue as to the difference: in the VTR, the sprint from 0 to 62mph takes 10.9 seconds; in the C2 GT it takes almost one and a half seconds less at 9.5 seconds.

Post-Christmas Diet

Actually, it's not just the gearbox that boosts performance. The GT has been on a post-Christmas diet so that it is nimbler. It ditches the VTR's spare wheel and substitutes an aerosol instead, while its electric mirrors are manually operated and there are no side skirts or foglamps. At 1027kg, it is 28kg less than a VTR. Not a huge amount, admittedly, but it all counts.

As a result of the changes, the GT feels a lot truer to its brief of delivering ?warm hatch' thrills. It's much quicker off the line than the VTR and you can punch up the gears surprisingly quickly.

It all gets buzzy at motorway speeds because of short gearing: at 80mph you're doing 4000rpm. But it's still relatively refined for a city car and can happily be driven long distances.

Tough Act to Follow

As for handling, the C2 has a tough act to follow: the Saxo VTR and VTS were classics of the genre. The C2 trades some of those thrills for extra ride comfort and more portly weight. It is no longer a truly exciting drive but then again you couldn't call it boring. It grips impressively and holds a predictable line through corners. The steering may not provide much feedback - it has too much assistance and a rather wooden feel - but it is a sharp little handler with a decent ride quality thrown in.

It's very easy to drive, with ultra-light power steering and well-suppressed levels of road, wind and engine noise. Inside, the GT has a funky, modern design with a big-car feel, although the digital instrument display isn't the best I've ever seen.

The C2's driving position is great, although the seats are not height-adjustable, so if you're short, you can feel a bit lost under that high roofline. In the rear, anyone of even average height will find legroom a squeeze and headroom severely limited (though shoulder width is good). As a £150 option you can order ?rear seat modularity' that allows each seat to slide and each seat base to fold independently, which is well worth the extra.

Equipment-wise, the GT gets natty white alloy wheels, a single-slot CD player, electric front windows, electric heated door mirrors, four airbags and cruise control.

Spot-on costs What should really swing young buyers is the costs equation. It's fairly economical at 43mpg and the insurance looks spot-on for the target audience at just group 6. At the time of writing the Citroen comes with a year's free insurance too. Best news of all is that the GT costs £500 less than the VTR.

The C2 is the modern, hip, style-conscious tearaway. It boasts sharp design, an appealing cabin, is fun to drive and well-priced. But you'll have to hurry if you want one. There are only 2250 GTs, all destined for the UK and all individually numbered, and I guarantee they will go like hot crepes.

Written by Chris Rees

  'R'acing Volvo Lacks Heart

Volvo can certainly do fast. Very fast. It has a proud history of turbocharged cars and the various incarnations of the T5 have been doing the rounds for years.

What Volvo doesn't have is a proud history of doing turbocharged cars very well. The T5 famously suffered excess power being driven through the front wheels which resulted in a tendency to steer somewhat sideways. Lately, some turbocharged Volvos have been fitted with four wheel drive to address the criticism.

This thankfully includes the ?R' series, which takes the idea of fast Volvos one big step further. The R series covers the V70 R and the car I tested here, the S60 R. The S60 was the saloon that turned people on to Volvo's sleek new design approach for the first time, and the ?R' version does look the part.

But fast is one thing and very good is another, and the Swede has to take on the likes of the BMW M3 to succeed. That's a tall order. To even come close it will have to be a big improvement on previous Volvos.

All Road Driving

Volvo calls its four wheel drive system AWD (All Wheel Drive), and it is a necessary addition to a car that boasts three hundred horsepower. Gone is the tendency to steer sideways although you still wouldn't be that keen on throttling down to heavily mid-corner.

The turbocharged 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine has absolutely bags of power. Hammer down on the throttle and you'll get a taste of the G-forces more commonly experienced by astronauts. Yet the power is poorly delivered. If you lift off the throttle with anything but the utmost care the car will shunt quite shamelessly. And at high revs the engine sounds unrefined rather than making the pleasing, sporty noise one would hope for. Refinement levels aren't helped either by the six-speed gearbox which is rather notchy.

The S60R uses Continuously Controlled Chassis Technology, which constantly monitors the car's speed, wheel movement and steering and changes the damper settings 500 times per second. Press a button on the dash and the suspension will change from Comfort to Sport to Advanced.

With the Comfort setting the ride quality is reasonably smooth but the handling is uninspiring. The handling tightens up somewhat in Sport mode but not enough to make it entertaining while the ride veers toward ?virtually unacceptable' territory. The Advanced setting crosses the boundary and the ride becomes bone-crunching and unbearable. You don't want to hang around long enough to even find out what the handling is like on this setting. The steering on the other hand is communicative at all times, but like so much about this car it lacks directness.

Inside View

What Volvo does do, arguably better than anyone else, is comfort. It's impossible not to get comfortable in the damn thing. The test car was fitted with leather seats which is a worthwhile option at £1080. The driving position is very comfortable with plenty of room for electrically controlled adjustment and there is lots of room. Rear seat passengers fare just as well with bags of kneeroom. Three adults would fit reasonably comfortably widthways too.

There's a clever touch in the back as well. The central armrest - once folded down - can be adapted in seconds to become a child booster seat. And the boot is huge with enormous amounts of room. You could carry enough shopping home to feed a family for a month.

Fitting in with the comfort theme and in keeping with the price tag, there is a serious amount of kit that comes as standard on the car. The electrically heated mirrors are foldable and have ground lights. They also have position memory, as do the electric seats. Climate control is included, as is front seat heating, auto dimming rear view mirror, height and reach adjustable steering and forward-folding front passenger seat. And safety is up to Volvo's habitual standards. Front airbags, side airbags, anti-whiplash protection system, Brembo brakes, ABS, stability control, three rear head restraints and centre-point seatbelts are all thrown in. And so on.

The S60R is not a bad car. It sometimes, almost, verges on the entertaining and it has more than enough power than you'd ever know what to do with. It is also a lovely car to be inside - comfortable, spacious and relaxing. Well, relaxing at a standstill anyway.

But there is a serious price tag on the thing. It is after all a Volvo. That's not to knock Volvo, but the Swedish company cannot yet get away with the kind of premium that Mercedes and BMW charge. Admittedly, it is £10,000 cheaper then the Mercedes C32 AMG, but the BMW M3 is within price range and knocks several shades of blue out of the Volvo in all matters related to driving. A luxury sports saloon needs to be better and either be truly refined like an Audi or go for hell for leather thrills motoring. The Volvo sits in between the two and manages neither.

Written by Ian Sumner