• Volvo's transformation from a company that builds boxy, boring but safe vehicles into one that produces sleek, slick and safe vehicles gained speed with the XC90 sport utility. Now it really accelerates with the new S60 R and V70 R models.

• The sedan and station wagon offer 300-horsepower engines, six-speed manual transmissions and road-hugging Four-C dynamic control technology.

• Volvo keeps this up and being called a "Volvo driving soccer mom" will become a coveted compliment.

At Detroit's Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise three years ago, a billboard showing the image of a 1963 split-window Chevrolet Corvette proclaimed: "They don't write songs about Volvos."

But the automotive world has changed a lot since then. Not only is there a song about a Volvo, but the grunge band Everclear has a provocative music video version of the cut from its new "Slow Motion Daydream" album. It tells of the strip-club dancing, porn-star bad girl who grows up to become a suburban housewife and "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom."

Although Volvo officials had nothing to do with Everclear's song, lyrics or sexy video, they obviously don't mind music that amplifies their efforts to take Volvo's boxy, boring image up-tempo.

Every soccer mom wants a safe vehicle, but now Volvo safety comes in such shapely packages such as the S80 sedan and the sensational XC90 sport utility.

"I've not seen a single vehicle receive so many awards in my 16 years in this country," says Vic Doolan, president of Volvo Cars of North America and a former executive at BMW. He added that even Volvo was surprised when its European-built unibody utility was voted Texas truck of the year and won the annual Mudfest in the Pacific Northwest.

Doolan notes that 80 percent of XC90 buyers are people new to the Volvo brand.

Now, Doolan adds, two new vehicles will "show that Volvo has thought about performance vehicles" in the same way it thought about SUVs.

The two new vehicles are the Volvo S60 R and the V70 R. Each is propelled by a 300-horsepower, turbocharged engine mated to a six-speed manual transmission and an all-wheel drivetrain. This combination is controlled by new "Four-C" dynamic chassis technology and brought to a quick, sure stop by big Brembo brakes.

While Everclear's Volvo-driving soccer mom's lifestyle may have slowed, her driving doesn't have creep along. Volvo says the V70 R is the fastest production station wagon in North America." And the S60 R sedan is even faster.

Volvo's tests show the V70 R sprinting from a standing start to 60 miles per hour in a sports car like 5.6 seconds, although when equipped with a five-speed automatic that time span expands to 7.4 seconds. The S60 R, which weighs 3571 pounds (186 less than the wagon), has respective times of 5.4 and 7.2 seconds.

As impressive as those figures are, what are most impressive about these cars are the other aspects of their dynamics.

For example, Volvo's thoughtful approach to producing performance vehicles is shown in the fact that it switched to racing-bred Brembo brakes, never before used on Volvo products, when its engineers discovered excessive heat and brake pad wear on their development drives. They also switched from their standard 12-inch discs to 13-inch rotors with four-piston, aluminum calipers.

Equipped with the Brembos, the V60 R stops from 62 miles per hour in fewer than 119 feet, and that figure grows only 2.4 feet after a succession of 10 repeated stops.

In addition to larger brakes than the standard S60 and V70, the R series cars get firmer springs, larger anti-roll bars and shocks that can react 500 times a second. Even with 18-inch wheels, the R cars ride lower to the road, which lowers the center of gravity, enhancing handling.

They are equipped with Volvo's DSTC (Dynamic Stability and Traction Control) "stabilization" technology.

But these R vehicles also get Volvo's new Four-C technology: the Continuously Controlled Chassis Concept. Volvo worked with Ohlins Racing, a Swedish suspension specialist, and shock absorber manufacturer Monroe to develop the system that measures rotational speed and vertical movement of each wheel, steering wheel deflection and velocity, cornering rate, engine torque and brake intervention. Then, the suspension adjusts so, as Volvo puts it, "the car is always fluid with the surface of the road."

The driver can select from comfort, sport and advanced modes, and it doesn't take much time behind the wheel to feel the very real and significant differences in those settings.

We drove the S60 R on city streets, two-lanes that twisted through hilly red-rock country, on freeways and around a racetrack and autocross circuit, and we drove the V70 R in town and twisties.

Power for both comes from a 2.5-liter inline five-cylinder engine with a turbocharger that's 20 percent larger than the standard unit Volvo uses and with two intercoolers instead of one. The powertrain features dual-range continuously variable valve timing, a modified oil sump and cylinder head cooling, reinforced pistons and connecting rods, and a high-flow exhaust system, with twin exhausts from the catalyst to the tailpipe tips.

The engine generates 300 hp at 5500 rpm and 295 pound-feet of torque, with peak torque available all the way from 1950 to 5250 rpm, so there's plenty of grunt for passing situations, or for weaving around the cones on the autocross course.

The close-ratio six-speed manual, a new gearbox designed by Volvo, allows the driver to use the engine's power, although we found the pickup point on the clutch fairly touchy (we were driving pre-production vehicles, so final tuning had not been completed).

Steering had a very light feel, though never fell behind our input. The brakes were very nice, providing linear application and direct feedback. The Four-C system was terrific, whether smoothing rough pavement or keeping things calm when pushed hard through the cones on the autocross course.

Among other things, Four-C reduces squat at launch, controls over and understeer, providing the control of slight understeer into a turn and the power of slight oversteer coming out. It reduces dive in braking and in hard turns - and also provides some rear-wheel bias to reduce roll through fast turns - controls wheel hop and generally keeps the car very well planted, even in the whooped-dee-do crests where other cars feel almost airborne.

The S60 R and V70 R are vehicles, says Volvo, that meet social, practical and emotional needs.

The sedans we drove wore 18-inch, Z-rated Pirelli P Zero Russo tires, 235/40 and the wagon had 235/45 Z-rated 17-inch Russos that provided a little more sidewall cushion, although the 18s are available as an option.

The S60R has a base price of $36,825 and the V60 R starts at $38,325. Volvo will build 7500 R vehicles for 2004 with 4200 of them headed for North America.

Standard equipment includes all of the technology systems plus Bi-Xenon headlights for both high and low beams, blue-faced watch dial-style gauges and a new three-spoke "R" steering wheel design.

Optional equipment includes an automatic transmission, 200-watt Dolby sound system, a climate package with heated seats and rain-sensing windshield wipers, a sunroof and navigation system. Also available are "untreated," baseball glove-like Atacama leather seats.

A few years it might have been hard to imagine, but now we find ourselves saying it: Volvo rocks!