Throwing A Volvo Brick <br/>Through The BTCC’s Window
Getting The Wagons Rolling

You can just imagine the looks on the faces of the other teams when Tom Walkinshaw Racing rolled out their racing car for the 1994 season of the British Touring Car Championship, heralding the debut of Volvo in the Super Touring era. The nose: so far, so good, so Volvo 850. But then the roofline came into view – and just kept coming.

TWR and Volvo had turned up with an estate? Was it April 1? Close: it was April 4… That said, the disbelief would have likely been countered with the fact that this was TWR they were dealing with. Did they know something the others didn’t?

2P7A8076

On paper it was a crazy idea. What are the normal things you look at when drawing out a touring car? Low weight. A stable platform with a sensible wheelbase. Aero efficiency. This wallowing estate would be up against the nimble BMW 318i, the sledgehammer-wedge Alfa Romeo 155 TS and saloon swarms of Mondeos, Cavaliers, Lagunas and more. But as it turned out, for every negative there was a positive – off-track, if not always on.

AM7I0737

As ever with the best stories, you could put the whole project down to an accident of circumstance. Volvo wanted to see what an 850-based racing car would look like, and enlisted Steffansson Automotive in Sweden to develop a car for Europe’s pre-eminent tin-top series of the time, the BTCC. Thing is, when SAM turned up to grab a shell from Volvo HQ, only estates were available – with no time to lose, that’s what they left with.

2P7A8072

But it turned out the old brick wasn’t such a bad idea – not just technically, but especially from a marketing perspective. Back-to-back testing against a saloon mule showed that the estate wasn’t that far off, thanks in no part to the big natural downforce increase the long body brought. It was deemed worth the risk.

2P7A8086

The project was turned over to iconic preparation firm TWR to bring to fruition, and the designer of the Jaguar 220 was unleashed on the 850.

2P7A8095

Everything was stripped out and thrown away in an effort to get near the regulation base weight of 950kg, leaving a cavernous interior that you could almost park a regular Super Tourer inside. Forget the usual cramped conditions; drivers could almost have brought their families along with them.

2P7A8088

And that was basically the point. What better way to reverse the stale and pedestrian image that Volvo had innocently acquired as a result of their commitment to safety and quality? The family car with the heart of a berserker, it was the epitome of what a touring car should be – the logical conclusion even.

2P7A8084

The 850 was powered by a normally-aspirated, 2.0-litre, inline five cylinder motor, which in tuned form produced around 290hp. It retained front-wheel drive as per the regs, but had a bespoke 6-speed sequential transmission that allowed the engine to be mounted lower and further back – always the holy grail.

AM7I0740

The seat also moved rearward and towards the centre, giving that typical Super Tourer look of having the driver sitting tucked to the rear of the B-pillar.

An Estate With A Serious Legacy
AM7I0641

Whether you think it’s pretty or not depends on whether you like Volvos. You could draw it in profile with five straight lines and it certainly wouldn’t provide a challenge for papercraft modellers… There was no boy racer rear wing, as regs meant bodywork had to remain stock. It had more glass than a window factory. And yet…

2P7A8087

Somehow the incongruous and boxy look still manages to look means as hell, helped of course by those tucked 18-inch O.Z. Racing wheels and its low stance.

AM7I0733

In the BTCC that year admittedly it didn’t set tracks on fire, but it wasn’t a no-hoper by any means. Respectable and regular points were scored, even if the 850 Estate wasn’t bothering the podium. The rearward weight distribution was a real disadvantage, taking the weight off the all-important front axle. The centre of gravity was too high and the long wheelbase reduced cornering efficiency.

2P7A8097

If anything, the lack of front-running success merely fuelled the fire. Serious and professional in every aspect of the technical and competition side, at the same time Volvo revelled in the derision from other teams who poured scorn on their supertanker Super Tourer – and reaped the positive publicity as a result. Their approach to the media became increasingly light-hearted, riffing on the (Big) David versus (Small) Goliaths.

AM7I0735

After all, the Volvo 850 is still one of the cars everyone remembers from that glorious period of touring cars. So who’s still laughing?

2P7A8089

With significant changes in the aerodynamic regulations for 1995 that would have rendered an estate body-shape even more uncompetitive, the 850 Estate programme was reluctantly dropped. Reluctant from the the public and Volvo’s perspectives anyway, as the team’s drivers were not necessarily massive fans of the car – and opposition drivers even less so. Getting stuck behind the estate was bad enough, but getting overtaken by one? The shame!

2P7A8073

An 850 saloon model took over for the following year – winning three times and laying the foundations for Rickard Rydell’s championship win in an S40 three years later. It seemed like that was the last we’d ever see of racing wagons. And it was – at least until Honda’s most recent foray with a station wagon, a BTCC Civic R Tourer. Again it turned out to be a single-year programme, but Honda’s machine proved an estate can win.

AM7I0730

Only two of the original three 850 Estate racing chassis remain, so seeing an authentic and original one is a rare sight. But what a sight – and an unmistakeable one at that. It’s not an understatement to say that it’s an iconic car from the Super Touring era, more recognisable – and even loved – than many other cars that won races and titles.

It just shows that success doesn’t come just from silverware. Sometimes you’ve got to think outside the box – and let the box run wild.

Jonathan Moore
Instagram: speedhunters_jonathan
jonathan@speedhunters.com

Photos by Peter Kelly
Instagram: speedhunters_pedey
pedey@speedhunters.com

ADVERTISEMENT

Comments



Comments are closed.

30 comments

by Oldest
by Best by Newest by Oldest
1

I loved watching that back in the day, always liked the Volvo.

2

thank you for this! I built the Tamiya 850 Estate BTCC model kit about 18 years ago and this article brought back some good memories....from the races I watched and paint fumes inhaled.

3

TW ran some the next year in Aus, and they were always exciting to watch. Notably as you said, their passing of regular cars. Great stuff!

4

@SW1 This is Speedhunters, not Modelhunters, so please try and keep on topic? Joke, as you're otherwise largely correct elsewhere, so not gunna complain. Respectfully. Neko.

5

And this, my friends, is why one 850 Estate BTCC is enshrined at Jalopnik Headquarters.

6
Chris 'Haffy' Hafner

The awesome days of real racing, that video is great!

7

Love this one.

8
Honorable Lord Pickstock

But you forgot to mention the crazy head work they did on these
http://www.supertouringregister.com/document/4/

9

Gosh that video is great.

10

Love this car. One of the coolest of all wagons.

But why the 2.0 NA plant? Some regulation in BTCC at the time banning turbos? The 2.3 Turbo was a stock engine for this car, too, and will go out to about 400 hp on all the factory internals.

This is one of the wagons I really love, and having had the sedan version as my daily driver for the last several years, I'm completely convinced that these cars are underappreciated. They have nearly everything good about a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry - toughness and reliability - with a robust sleeper stealth factor thrown in for good measure. 

When I think about all the stunts I've been able to get away with, just because no one suspects a guy in a white 850 to do them...

There are only really two problems with them, both of which are probably just quirks of the American market. One, OEM parts are more expensive than Mercedes - no bullshit. Two, the turbo cars didn't come with manuals - Volvo gave some lame excuse of not being able to get the turbo engine past the EPA with a stick behind it.

Fucking EPA. Oh well, that's what the junkyard's there for.

11
mazdaspeeder86

Btcc. Best races ever... so exciting to watch drivers going balls out

12

Why couldn't the '90s just have gone on forever? So sad, the racing is actually exciting to watch. Being born in '88 and therefore being too young to pay attention while all this was going on, all I get to see these days are clips. These old seasons of the European touring car series' - full coverage as shown on TV back in the day - need to be made available.


I've been working on building a Honda H22A engine with plans of putting it into a '92/'93 Accord wagon for street and track use, and this Volvo has been a big inspiration from the get-go. The idea of a quick wagon that also looks aggressive (especially one from that era, I absolutely love that 'box-flared' styling of '80s/'90s Europe and Japan) is too cool for words.

Big thanks for running this story!

13

Ice Age Check this article which goes into the ridiculous amount of work to get the 2.0 engine to BTCC specs, very interesting read: http://www.supertouringregister.com/document/4/

14

@Kuroneko
well played, sir!

15

This is the meat and potatoes of SH articles. Thank you for a great history lesson!

16

Totally unrelated but is there any gatebil coverage from last weekend coming up?

17

There is mooted story that one of the estates was converted into a saloon for 1995.

Any substance?

18

ChrisEyre chassis R4-003 (which was never raced) was reshelled as a saloon & used for developement for the 1995 cars

19

Ice Age the rules were 2litre NA only, & you won't get 400bhp with the standard con-rods

20

@Duane Ice Age Somebody was having a Turkish when they wrote that rule. 

And yeah, you can get 400 hp out of the factory rods. But barely, and only for a little while.

21
bluestreaksti

That racing. Just wow. So much fun to see this car overtake. Is there anything today that compares?

22
Pethconi Racing

Love racing it still.... outrun bmw, porsches etc etc.... just love it !!!!

23

ATS wheels, not OZ

24
cutterjones13

Great article. More of these adult (grownup) stories and less drift and silly shit just because 'someone in japan built it' stories. Or start a mature automotive site.

25

bluestreaksti No!

1994.1995 was a golden era.  Think you can see whole season on YouTube.

26
birelmotosport

cutterjones13 Couldn't agree more. Unfortunately that's their core demographic, so I wouldn't expect much.

27

You really are full of nonsensical comments on here...

28

bluestreaksti Current BTCC compares. It's not all manufacturer teams any more (really there's just Honda versus independent teams), but the racing is frantic, unpredictable and sometimes on two wheels (especially at Knockhill in Scotland!)

29

Were was this?

30

the car was very good 
really really like to see the car that shiny new car fits like made ​​for walking trailsthe car was very good http://utamadomino.com/app/img/peraturan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://utamadomino.com/app/img/peraturan.html and very fast http://utamadomino.com/app/img/jadwal.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://utamadomino.com/app/img/jadwal.html mix of colors http://utamadomino.com/app/img/promo.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://utamadomino.com/app/img/promo.html from which to http://utamadomino.com/app/img/panduan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://utamadomino.com/app/img/panduan.html make want pobud http://utamadomino.com/ see hatnya http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/peraturan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/peraturan.html kecepatanya http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/jadwal.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/jadwal.html was very nice ,http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/promo.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/promo.html  suitable for a "http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/panduan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://dokterpoker.org/app/img/panduan.html sharp bend http://dokterpoker.org or not sharp I guess motorists http://633cash.com/Games like this is http://633cash.com/Pengaturan" very skilled in the speed I hope I can membilinya someday will whether http://633cash.com/Daftar http://633cash.com/Promo there are http://633cash.com/Berita new cars http://633cash.com/Livescore are better I http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/peraturan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/peraturan.html 'll wait for it , with a stylish car classic http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/jadwal.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/jadwal.html style I http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/promo.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/promo.html also like http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/panduan.html" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://raksasapoker.com/app/img/panduan.html to see would be http://raksasapoker.com/ whether there is a http://yakuza4d.com/peraturan" rel="dofollow" target="_blank">http://yakuza4d.com/peraturan car that is http://yakuza4d.com as fast and forius http://yakuza4d.com/home like in the "http://yakuza4d.com/daftar movie , the car very http://yakuza4d.com/cara_main good car http://yakuza4d.com/hasil designed a way apparently hopefully http://yakuza4d.com/buku_mimpi there will be new cars more good and the price is quite pantastis then chances are I can membilinya the same as you have at this time

OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS