BTCC 850 Estate: Time For Tea?

"They all laughed when Volvo said they'd be entering an estate, but they don't think it's funny anymore"

This is what's known as lateral thinking, or something like that. Honda releases a new Civic Type R touring car, replacing the Civic Tourer which inevitably led to thinking about that other BTCC racing wagon, the Volvo 850.

Originally Volvo's own tribute video for the 850 was going to feature here. It's not bad but, well, this is better. Five minutes of highlights from the 1994 BTCC season with the big Volvo as the focus and Murray Walker commentating. There's outbraking, smashes, bashes, strewn bumpers and flared tempers. It's magnificent.

The vid is also a great reminder of when British touring cars really mattered to manufacturers and when budgets allowed a big motorsport programme. See at 0:58 where seven different cars are in the train going up to Dingle Dell at Brands: Volvo, Alfa Romeo, Vauxhall, Renault, BMW, Ford, Nissan. Keep a look out for a Castrol Toyota Carina E too. That livery doesn't look great on every motorsport Toyota it would seem.

Anyway, it's a super vid with fantastic racing throughout. Put the kettle on and enjoy!

Watch it here.