Split is quite efficient on short and simple strings. The following is what I normally do, with a one-liner, not necessarily better, but less typing.

my $var = '-rwxr-xr-x  1 svcn-3  ymn-3  7618486 Jan 20 21:42 20040120-
+299-x49.exe';
printf "Update at %s %s at %s hours\n", (split /\s+/, $var)[5,6,7];
[download]

Here's another method I can think of that might improve the efficiency a bit if the string is long and has plenty of spaces. This approach only remembers the required fields and throws away the rest.

printf "Update at %s %s at %s hours\n",
      ($var =~ /^(?:\S+\s+){5}(\S+)\s+(\S+)\s+(\S+)/);
[download]