My slightly odd collection of Volvos...

[massivewangers]

I don't know if this is entirely the correct place but it will do. I thought I'd give a bit of a (short) history about my slightly sporadic Volvo ownership. I'm not entirely sure how some of them will go down, but hey ho, they were all done in aid of charity and for a laugh.

I've actually spent much of my time as a Ford fan, having owned several Escorts and the like over the years. I still own two, one road car and one rally car and they're my projects now, with a Volvo as my daily car.

Anyway, my first real experience of Volvos was a friend who had a '96 850 T-5 GLT. I borrowed the car on a couple of occassions and was extremely impressed by it. Around the same time, that same friend, along with another embarked on a charity banger rally, starting near Calais and travelling to Rimini in Italy via The Alps, including the Stelvio pass amongst others. By pure chance we ended up winning a G-plate 740 estate. Considering the cost, it was actually in remarkably good condition but, as this was a charity rally, it required some customisation. As our fourth team member (who had to pull out due to work commitments) was in the forces, we decided to do the event in aid of Help for Heroes, so there was only one way to go with the Volvo. Anyway, the car got us there and back. The only issue along the way was some cooked brakes on Stelvio due to some slightly over-enthusiastic driving. This car was then sold and went on to complete another banger rally in Ireland with another team (though it had been painted in cow print for this I believe). Anyway, pictures:









Following on from this, a year or so later, inspired by my friend's old T-5, the opportunity came up for me to swap a rather nice Orion 1600E I had at the time for this, a '96 T-5 CD Auto. The Orion didn't really fit in with what I needed, so this made a little more sense. Owning something like this as a student may have been slightly foolish, and fate intervened, forcing me to sell it after a short time, but it was extremely fun while it lasted. It had the R looks, and with a nice big cone filter made some good noises. I still miss it, and rate it as one of the best cars I've owned, despite its age, even then. Shame I don't have any nice pictures of it.





Then, just after university finished in 2012, another charity rally beckoned. My team mates took the plunge and bought this, a 940 Turbo. Not nearly as good condition as the old 740, and I never really gelled with it, despite the improved performance. This one took us from East Anglia to Wales, and then to Scotland via some beautiful roads. The military theme remained of course.





And that brings us to now. At the end of 2013, after a year with an ST220 Mondeo which was brilliant in every way, except that it was ludicrously uneconomical, especially doing 30k a year, I happened to win my current car on eBay, half by accident; a 2003 V70 D5 manual. It's certainly a step forward from the Mondeo in terms of build quality and ride, but obviously not quite as fast, and the handling isn't quite so good. Very well equipped for an 11 year old car though. It's doing the job of ferrying me on my 100 mile round trip to work and transporting bits of other car, as well as taking me to rallies all over the UK. I'm currently debating whether or not to modify, or just leave it alone. It's eBay pictures only currently I'm afraid.





The D5 does tick a lot of boxes, but I think I'd struggle to resist a P2 T5/850R if a nice manual one came up. Fuel economy is ok, but pretty darn boring...

[jamesy12345]

Nice write up!

Good effort for taking a 740 on the Stelvio pass I bet you will remember that

[V70 Graham]

Nice collection you've been through there.

[AndysR]

Nice one Jon, must confess I'd forgotten about your first foray into Volvo ownership, that 740 looks really clean!

[massivewangers]

Yes it was really nice, probably a bit too good for what we did to it really, but it was in aid of a good cause.

I still miss the 850 though. Don't know if it's still about. Need to look it up really.

[AndysR]

Yes it was really nice, probably a bit too good for what we did to it really, but it was in aid of a good cause.

I still miss the 850 though. Don't know if it's still about. Need to look it up really.

It was for sale about 6 months ago so I think it's probably still around somewhere, didn't look any different in the pictures to how it did when you owned it and from memory hadn't done many more miles either...

Come on what's the rally car then?

[massivewangers]

Oh really? I'm glad it's still around. I think it only had around 115k on it when I sold it so pretty low mileage for one now. I'd actually consider buying it back, despite it not being an R. It would be nice to see it again, it was a lot of fun.

Just did a little check, taxed until end of Sept, MoT until August, so hopefully she's still going strong.

I'm afraid the rally car isn't anything too exciting. It's a '91 RS2000, Safety Devices cage, Bilstein Group N coilovers, Quaife diff, slightly wider track but mostly standard otherwise. It's currently undergoing a bit of a freshen up as it's a bit rough around the edges, so want to ensure it's reliable before I start competing. A few engine tweaks and a lower final drive kit are in the pipeline too