RE: Volvo 360 GLE: You Know You Want To
Discussion
stu67 said:
My Dad had a really early one of those back in the day with the Daf (or duff) Variomatic gearbox. It was a really nasty yellow with brown cord trim! It was written off much to my fathers delight when he got out to buy some fags at a petrol station, left it running and it actually slipped into gear! This resulted in lots of techs from Volvo inspecting it and a very heavy discount from Volvo on a 245 GLE (hush money my dad called it), he was well chuffed.
Think the 340 range was one of the few car ranges that was almost completely re-engineered during it's life but still had the same overall body, the only other one I can think of off hand is the Triumph Toledo.
Anyway I like it, must be a blast.
You're not far wrong - the original (Daf 77) had a Variomatic with a dog clutch forward/reverse and a centrifugal (Sachs-type) drive clutch. When starting on choke from cold, you had to start then 'in gear' or you'd never select it! Volvo soon re-designed the selector system. Probably because of your father et al. Think the 340 range was one of the few car ranges that was almost completely re-engineered during it's life but still had the same overall body, the only other one I can think of off hand is the Triumph Toledo.
Anyway I like it, must be a blast.
There was no provision for a manual, so putting in the massive Volvo five-speed at the rear (Alfa/Porsche style) required big changes. So did squeezing in the big Volvo engines.
The boggo versions were a bit stodgy to drive, but had a lovely balance and excellent refinement. The car was a cut-down Big Daf (stillborn) and was thus heavy, but refined with terribly awkward proportions. Just like a 1-series is to a 3-series, in fact!
If it had had a blue propeller on the nose, it might have been considered a right w@nkfest instead of being just considered rather w@nk.
foggyjames said:
A lot drive badly now, because the suspension is original and screwed, but a well sorted original one (especially a GLT with proper tyres) drives well ...they're very, very similar mechanically to a mk1/mk2 Escort, but with better weight distribution, cheers
James
Out of interest, what is the weight distribution of a standard one? They seem to be the same front rear split as most Escorts in the couple of test examples I've seen?James
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