I began out in a security orange 1975 Volvo 242. This was a first-year, entry stage mannequin, with a 1.8-liter B20A engine carried over from the automobile’s slightly-less rectilinear predecessor, the 140. “It made under 100 hp,” mentioned Hans Hedberg, the corporate’s heritage supervisor, and the madman accountable for my upcoming crimson herring buffet. This is just not a lot to encourage almost 3000-lbs of Swedish iron, even given its four-speed handbook. But on my journey from my resort in Gothenberg to the corporate’s take a look at monitor an hour out of city, the brick pumpkin nonetheless delivered pleasure.
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Some of this may need been a results of the automobile’s inside, which was carried out up in a period-correct riot of electrical tangerine overlain by a layer of orange, gold, black, and brown vertical stripes that might not have seemed misplaced on a collared pullover in Ernie’s boyfriend Bert’s closet. “In 1975, you could buy a tie in that pattern at your Volvo dealer,” Hedberg advised me, wistfully, like all good Gen X-er, recalling the everlasting autumnal palette of our shared childhoods.
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But most of my giddiness was anticipatory. I used to be on the town, partly, to drive a handful of scorching rods from the corporate’s almost 100-year historical past. When I advised my boyfriend, with whom I had owned two up-powered six-cylinder Nineteen Seventies Volvos in our 20s through the ‘90s, he looked suspicious. “Volvo made hot rods?” Indeed they did.
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First up was a trio of mid-90s 850 turbos. I began in a burgundy T-5 sedan, before moving on to a bright red T-5 R sedan. These were both manuals, making the R a personal unicorn, given that that spec was never available in the US. The more potent of this pair made nearly 250 hp, and the lesser model somewhere in the low 200s, a relative feast, and certainly enough to overpower their front wheels, which I did quite often (actually, always) despite the help Porsche had offered in the car’s tuning.
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Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the comparatively weaker automobile delivered extra pleasure. It was much less peaky, higher balanced, and had superior damping, whereas feeling each bit as fast, if no more usably speedy. This didn’t shock Hedberg. “I always advise people against buying the top spec of a vintage car,” he mentioned. “Those cars were always used harder, and have more that can go wrong or wear out.” Instead, he really helpful that consumers, “buy an 850 Turbo you can drive all the time.”
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The third leg of the åttahundrafemtio triangle was an American-spec T-5R station wagon, in a putrid hue that I name Necrotic Liver. Quick for a wagon, it was sadly geared up with an automated transmission and hobbled alignment that induced it to decorate to the correct, no matter how firmly I attempted to command it. (The subsequent day, we drove that beast an hour northeast to Trollhättan, to go to the Saab museum, however that’s one other story.) Despite my affection for Volvo wagons, I didn’t fall for this veering buff slab.
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Up subsequent was a 2004 S60 R AWD in a really interval right teal over orange—Flash Green and Atacama, in Volvo-speak—full with cobalt-tinted gauges and the marque’s distinctive 6-speed handbook shifter, with the so-called “spaceball” rounded base, the wondrous leather-tipped knob of which seems prefer it has turgidly damaged freed from its codpiece, to the delight of dimension queens and superhero cos-players the world over.
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This factor was a real velocity demon in its day, able to a 5.5-second dash to 60 mph. It nonetheless felt a lot quick on the twisty Swedish nation roads on which I viciously flogged it, helped alongside by an all-wheel-drive system which, regardless of a powerful FWD bias, might be goosed into feeling prefer it had a extra even F/R break up with intelligent pedal dancing. Despite its one zillion dashboard buttons, blessed lack of any massive distracting LCD screens, and lunatic shade scheme, it felt surprisingly fashionable.
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Extremely not-modern was an auric Nineteen Sixties P1800 that I obtained into subsequent, a fragile and razor-finned 2+2 that seemed like Italian translated into Swedish, as a result of it was (it was designed by a Swede who’d been indoctrinated by Pietro Frua.) I’ve at all times had one thing of an affection for these as a Nordic sports activities coupe outlier—just like the kooky Saab Sonett. And whereas I used to be glad to lastly get behind the wheel, and enjoy its intricate daintiness, it didn’t actually do a lot for me.
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The P1800 wasn’t a complete lifeless finish for the model. Late in its life, it yielded Volvo’s first taking pictures brake, the P1800ES, a physique fashion which, after a bar mitzvah-length absence, was resurrected within the subsequent automobile I drove, the 480ES of the mid-80s. (And, later, within the 2006-13 C30.) I used to be blessed with a turbo, five-speed mannequin, which gained 20 hp over its naturally-aspirated siblings. This was Volvo’s first mannequin with front-wheel-drive, and solely with pop-up headlights. Aimed at a picture defrumpification, to compell the younger Boomers who had been migrating into Bimmers, it did neither for the US market, as a result of it was by no means out there right here. It was bizarre, in all one of the best methods, and made me miss the equally door-stoppy mid-80s Civic two-door hatch I drove for a summer season in school.
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Yet my absolute favourite automobile of the day was 1000x extra compelling. It introduced me full circle, because it was one other 240, but it surely couldn’t have been extra completely different from the tangerine dreampuff from that morning. It was a sedan, it was an ’88, and it had BBS alloys and a five-speed (although the highest cog was accessed electronically, through a knob-top swap with a 5 on it.)
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But, greater than this, it had been specifically constructed for the then-CEO of the corporate, and, as such, had each go-fast bit that might be bolted on. This included a particular rally tuned suspension, and, most notably, a stroked, turbocharged, and intercooled model of Volvo’s beefy 2.5-liter marine engine. A naturally aspirated 1988 240 made 115 hp; a inventory turbo mannequin made simply over 150 hp. This one, based on Heberg, made 265 hp.
It drove like some sort of stonking resto-mod with an LS swap, or just like the love little one of a 240 and a Mercedes 500E, however was as tight and flat and completely unflappable as a model new Volvo. I used to be smiling so laborious whereas hammering it, I assumed I’d require a face transplant upon exiting. Instead, I stored that grin plastered on, and easily began prowling eBay for that orange 1975 necktie. (So far, I’ve solely discovered the blue model.)
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Source: jalopnik.com