Volvo V90 for occassional track day use - suggestions needed

[tooFATtoDRIVE]

Hi,
I would be interested to hear opinions as to Volvo V90 ability to be a track car (for track days = having fun ). What extend of mods of the suspension and brakes would be required? The engine/gearbox would be standard for the time being.

I would probably want a sleeper street car that is suitable for little fun on the race track / track day, yet keeps all the creature comforts for daily/weekend use. I have always been an enthusiast of large Volvo estates and V90 seems to be the last RWD (RWD=fun ) Volvo produced. I do mountain biking from time to time so big loading space is highly desired.

Lets get is started then. What would you guys modify then?

[chrisispringles]

I'd say you'd be better off looking at something a little smaller and lighter, a V90 will shred tyres and cook brakes on a track and almost all of them are automatics.

However, if you are dead set on wanting a big brick for trackday use and sleeper fun, I'd say look at a Volvo 960; they are pretty much identical to V90s, but there are more manual ones out there and they are significantly cheaper than V90s. Also, the 2.5 I6 in the manual 960s is similar in terms of power to the 2.9 in a V90. In terms of modifications, you would be looking at coilovers, big brakes and good tyres at the very least, along with stripping an awful lot of weight out of it if you want the tyres to last. If I'm being honest, much though it would be fantastic to track a sleeper Volvo 960 or V90, it would be very impractical and unnecessarily expensive.

[V8mate]

I'm guessing that the OP already hs a V90 rather than looking to buy one for this purpose?

Otherwise, the easiest advice is simply to head for an 850 T5.

[tooFATtoDRIVE]

Yeah, I got one
In a long run Corvette V8 will be swapped in but for the first few months (probably until winter time) I want to concentrate on the suspension, coilover kits, brakes and the wheels.

Track days would be like 5-7 times a year so V90 would be my daily/weekend car that would be capable of track time whenever I feel like. The car already has M90 manual gearbox so at least this is sorted

[V8mate]

Well there's little point in setting up the car for its current weight distribution if you're imminently going to do an engine swap. Unless money's no object.

[tooFATtoDRIVE]

V8mate said:

Well there's little point in setting up the car for its current weight distribution if you're imminently going to do an engine swap.

This is actually a very good point to think through. Cheers

[Chris Wilson]

I have a manual V90 and am a long term RWD Volvo fan. You will find it a rather difficult car to mod as it will have Nivomat type ride height adjusting rear dampers and a composite transverse leaf spring for the complex multi link rear suspension. There will be few off the shelf bits available for it. There will be plenty of custom fabrication needed to make it stop and handle. I bought it as I like RWD cars and it was the last of the "proper" Volvos. I did toy with an engine swap, someone on the Turbobricks forum has done a nice job of putting a twin turbo Supra MKIV engine in one. I specialise in Supras and have access to plenty of donor parts, but at the end of the day a 240 is easier to work with and has a good performance parts network in Scandinavia. Good luck with it though. I have a late 960 estate here I got for spares, it has a blown head gasket, if you need anything I may be breaking it soon. It has the same rear suspension set up as the V90, but the one for bits is an automatic.

You will find the Turbobricks forums a mine of good info:

http://forums.turbobricks.com/index.php

[tooFATtoDRIVE]

Hi Chris,
Thanks for your input. I would love to have single turbo 2JZ-GTE in my V90 but seeing how expensive the manual 6 gear Getrag gearbox gets makes me scary On the other hand I read somewhere that even with an automatic gearbox the 2JZ-GTE engine makes for some ultra fast car.
Out of interest, having learned you specialise in Supra, would you be able to estimate the cost of getting 2JZ-GTE up to 450HP, together with 6gear manual V160 Getrag and all the electronics/hardware to make it swap ready. I would greatly appreciate you help on this one.
In regards to suspension (polibushes, fully adjustable coilovers) and big brake conversion setup, I got in touch with some Volvo fans in Poland to see what could be done. I will report here once I get some info.
If I were in the US, things would be even simpler:

• front coilovers: http://www.kaplhenke.com/index.php?option=com_cont...
• rear coilovers: http://www.kaplhenke.com/index.php?option=com_cont...

Ps. I know tubrobricks quite well and that is where I get some ideas for my V90 brick.