The console is in a windowless basement. The screen shows a highly detailed, three-dimensional impression of the tree-lined snake that is the Nürburgring Nordschliefe. The controls include a steering wheel and pedals, but nothing else. Playstation then, in a mate’s basement? No. This is Volvo’s chassis simulator, buried down several flights of concrete stairs at its Gothenburg R&D centre. 

I’m here to drive the new Volvo XC60, in T5 front-wheel drive form, around the ‘Ring. Or a part of an XC60, because although I open a door into the crossover’s brand new cockpit, I am only getting into a third of a car, the vehicle in question shorn of its structure aft of the front seats and pretty much everything beneath the bonnet and front wings. It sits on a moving rig, has functional instruments and makes internal combustion noises once started up. Which is done by a man at a control panel behind a glass sheet overlooking the XC60, the rig and a screen worthy of a small arthouse cinema.

The point of all this? Not to entertain bored Volvo engineers, obviously, but to provide a representation of a car before it’s possible to build a physical prototype. The idea is to save time by trying out a new suspension system virtually, months before you can get a prototype out on the track.

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The simulator replicates transient cornering in terms of steering and handling, but although the car moves around it does not mimic the g-force generated in a corner, nor when braking and accelerating either. This slightly incomplete set of physical sensations is why there’s a sick bag – never yet used – in the door bin. 

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And I’m getting the chance to put it at risk. You can drive as fast as you like, I’m told, apart from over some cone-marked crests, the vastly powerful computers not yet able to cope with a car getting air, and I’m also told that it’s not about setting lap times, either for testers or Volvo. The company doesn’t publish ‘Ring lap times explains chassis chief Stefan Karlsson, but it finds the ‘Ring very useful for developing handling and steering. As does Ferrari, which originally developed the system with a company called VI-Grade, and Porsche, Volvo being the third car-maker to buy this highly sophisticated equipment. There are now around 10 car manufacturers using it, says Karlsson.