Volvo C70 R AWD - Is it possible?

[Shinkou Ookami]

Hi PH'ers,

I have a query and thought maybe PH readers would like to give me their opinion (or shameless ridicule).

I currently run a 1998 Volvo C70 T5 as my main car, I love the looks of the thing (Its in Saffron Pearl the best colour!) and whilst performance wise its shockingly good (it has way more power than the front wheel drive set up can handle)

What I want to know is is it possible to fit the engine and drivetrain from a V or S 70 R AWD to the C70? Volvo never made an 'R' Spec or AWD C70 but it is based on the same chassis, so my query is, is it possible to "retrofit" the engine and 4WD drivetrain to a C70 bodyshell?

I was thinking of a kitcar project (ie a caterham or some such) but if this is possible it sounds more fun, and by making the C70 all wheel drive with the extra power from the R spec engine would really give it the ability to scare the M3 drivers at the lights, I can already scare early boxster drivers!!! heh heh heh

[5potTurbo]

How much power are your considering "too much to handle"?

My S-Max 2.5T was running 365bhp/525Nm for 4 months, and it was do-able with only FWD.
Quaife ATB diff, solid flywheel, 5 paddle clutch.

I still have the flywheel & clutch ....

Anything's possible - it's more a case of time or money.

Edited by 5potTurbo on Tuesday 27th April 16:29

[Stedman]

Can't see why not!

Get onto t5d5.org and ask the question. There are some very knowledgeable people there that will help you out.

Saffron only looks good on the estates

[WildCards]

If you're not upping the power I'd look at what you can do to help your existing transmission put the power it has down better, as has been mentioned a fancy diff would probably be a good place to start. The 4wd gubbins will add weight, increase losses and worsen the fuel consumption whilst costing a pretty penny i'd have thought. Still, if you do press on with it, make sure you post up a build diary.

[VxDuncan]

I'm fairly sure there was a stillborn AWD C70 project at one time. An ex-TWR (they did a lot of niche automotive development projects back in the day!) colleague of mine was fairly sure it could be done relativity easily.

[Shinkou Ookami]

Thanks for the comments people,

I was talking to a guy at PWCars in Beaconsfield (Volvo Specialist), who reckoned that a conversion to AWD wouldn't be possible, but that I could probably get the V/S 70 R spec FWD engine into my C70 thats good for 300bhp and I could do an ECU remap to take it to about 340BHP, the gearbox either auto or manual from the R would be able to take the power too. Not quite given up on the AWD yet but it looks like it may not be possible. The early C70's were actually built by TWR for Volvo, so a stillborn project doesnt come as a surprise.

Part of the problem with getting the power down is that the car doesnt have any tricky electronic slip diffs or the like that the modern focus using a development of my engine does have and its also the weight and size of the car, its actually slightly longer than the V70 of the same age. improving the suspension and brakes using Koni FSD's and Eibach springs plus AP Racing brakes will improve things a lot, but you still have the problem that if the back decides to let go, its going to go regardless AWD would have helped that issue and made the car a serious M3 rival. (It always should have been rear wheel drive IMHO)

I think its going to become my project, just need to find a find out if AWD is impossible, and then find myself a good donor 'R' car. oh and a new daily driver too for whiles its off the road.

[Shinkou Ookami]

Stedman said:

Can't see why not!

Get onto t5d5.org and ask the question. There are some very knowledgeable people there that will help you out.

Saffron only looks good on the estates

Thanks chief, was checking out that site there are indeed some knowledgable people on there will post my query there.

Saffron looks excellent on the C70 need to get my windows tinted and some nice black alloys too, ar maybe Graphite 'R' wheels.
A mate of mine wants to get his VW Touareg (however its spelt) in that colour!!!

Edited by Shinkou Ookami on Wednesday 28th April 20:40

[morgrp]

Engine will go straight in as for the drivetrain it will need modification I would think the prob shaft and rear end will need some work - But as someone said already, if your budget is big enough, anything is possible

[gary71]

VxDuncan said:

I'm fairly sure there was a stillborn AWD C70 project at one time. An ex-TWR (they did a lot of niche automotive development projects back in the day!) colleague of mine was fairly sure it could be done relativity easily.

As you probably know TWR did the body engineering of the original C70 for Volvo, it's 850 platform under there, so anything can be done with a big enough angle grinder I may (or may not... ) have had something to do with it...

[ilovevolvo]

Shinkou Ookami said:

Thanks for the comments people,

I was talking to a guy at PWCars in Beaconsfield (Volvo Specialist), who reckoned that a conversion to AWD wouldn't be possible, but that I could probably get the V/S 70 R spec FWD engine into my C70 thats good for 300bhp and I could do an ECU remap to take it to about 340BHP, the gearbox either auto or manual from the R would be able to take the power too. Not quite given up on the AWD yet but it looks like it may not be possible. The early C70's were actually built by TWR for Volvo, so a stillborn project doesnt come as a surprise.

Part of the problem with getting the power down is that the car doesnt have any tricky electronic slip diffs or the like that the modern focus using a development of my engine does have and its also the weight and size of the car, its actually slightly longer than the V70 of the same age. improving the suspension and brakes using Koni FSD's and Eibach springs plus AP Racing brakes will improve things a lot, but you still have the problem that if the back decides to let go, its going to go regardless AWD would have helped that issue and made the car a serious M3 rival. (It always should have been rear wheel drive IMHO)

I think its going to become my project, just need to find a find out if AWD is impossible, and then find myself a good donor 'R' car. oh and a new daily driver too for whiles its off the road.

Hi it would be worth also asking on www.Volvospeed.com or www.turbobricks.com there is no limit to what you can do just the limit of your wallet !!! if you want my advise come and have a ride in an FWD 850 saloon with a genuine 500 plus hp and see how well it goes handles and stops you will be surprised at how good a fwd car can be with the right advise and parts used .

Have a look at this link for the car in question :

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... 591 hp/524 ftlbs Yellow Volvo 854 T5-R the story so far..

Russ

Edited by ilovevolvo on Saturday 8th May 22:01

[pits]

I have been using our C70 T4 for the past few days, now it is running better, had a problem, took it to Volvo, they added some software then it ran like a shower of fking st after they fixed it, I replaced the MAF and it is now running really well, which means I have finally had to have a go of really playing with on the twisty roads, and they really should of made a C70 R as the normal FWD version is frigging awful handling wise with so much power through the front, torque steer, tramlines it actually feels dangerous and sloppy.

I was also thinking, how easy would it be to do an AWD version, I mean that would be awesome

[Coke3380]

I had similar question I have 2010 v70 volvo and was wondering how easy or hard to make awd??