My Volvo 850R - Work in progress!

[Johnspex]

Nice car. Nicely written too. Easy to read.

[pSyCoSiS]

Excellent purchase of an iconic car.

I had just the standard T5 estate around 5 years ago, it was pretty knackered but I loved it!

These are super solid machines and look so damn cool, even the turbo gauge in the instrument cluster adds to the driving experience.

Enjoy this and cherish it - good ones are going up in price (that's if you can find one).

[klunkT5]

Well done mate, Top choice, Utterly bullet proof if looked after

[Stedman]

Lovely motor, I miss my Saffron V70R.

I'm not sure if the clear V70 lights should go on these now, because 90's amber's

[grumpy52]

I know this car !
I am a Deal resident and serial volvo owner . 240 , 740 , 245 , 850 , S70T5 , S40t4 and 2 x C70t5 .
There is another 850R in the town that is in very nice condition.
Congratulations on a great choice .
I can recommend fitting a strut brace and decent discs and pads , tyres can make a huge difference on the 850/70 range .

[SiH]

What did the remap do to your insurance? The last one I did was on a Citroen Xsara Picasso and laughably the insurance company added a 20% increase to my premium even though it had gone from being glacially slow to just tortoise slow...!

[chj]

Good luck with it and look forward to reading updates. I had a 850R same colour and interior and manual but a saloon in about yr 2000. Reg was P73TFC. Good car. Paid £11k for it at the time. Love fast saloons, hence my e63amg now.

[C.MW]

Love the car and your passion in looking after it. Looks great especially in the wagon form and the wheels from the V70R look excellent on this. With remap and a few tweaks it will be fast enough to rival modern peformance offerings which is uber cool. I hope you will enjoy it for a long, long time to come.

[zestyfesty]

Unorthodox and refreshing to see this very cool flying brick. Alfie Constanza campaigned a 242GT (excuse me if I got this wrong) at Bathurst in the 80s. One of our more famous motor racing quotes was this from Dick Johnson pursuing him in a Sierra ‘it’s like following a flying block of flats’. Great you are DIYing too, I wish you many happy years, I can only see fast estates from the 90s getting cooler, particularly a big Swede with a warbling 5

[Snazzyjake]

shost said:

Make sure you bring it to the Volvo 600 at Bruntingthorpe 31/03/2019

Definitely will be, its only 15 mins from my house!

[Snazzyjake]

Johnspex said:

Nice car. Nicely written too. Easy to read.

Thanks for the kind words, I do try!

[Snazzyjake]

pSyCoSiS said:

Excellent purchase of an iconic car.

I had just the standard T5 estate around 5 years ago, it was pretty knackered but I loved it!

These are super solid machines and look so damn cool, even the turbo gauge in the instrument cluster adds to the driving experience.

Enjoy this and cherish it - good ones are going up in price (that's if you can find one).

Thanks, this was definitely in knackered territory when I bought it. Well on the road to recovery now though!

I'm with you on the boost gauge, there's just something cool about a factory fitted one I think

And yes, that's the plan eventually. Once its all sorted it will be retired from daily driver duties.

[cosworth330]

My 850R was an auto, the V70 R was a manual. The V70 R was better in every way but it was less than 3yrs old with only 15k miles and cost me 20k. I had both cars at the same time for a month or so and remember the 850 feeling quite a bit slower, brakes and handling were superior on the V70 plus the AWD you could take liberties in the wet. My brother in law bought a new RS4 V8 in 2007 and when I drove that the V70 felt slow and wobbly!

I think the 850’s are far more tuneable though and manual is the one to have. I remember going out in Elliott’s red 850R saloon which was the quickest 850 in the country by far,awesome 850 that was.
Although I’ve moved onto quicker cars, V10 M5 and now F80 M3 I love my Volvo’s.

I met Tim Williams back in 2009 at the Nurburgring. I was out there in my M3 Evo with some guys from a Volvo forum. I had a passenger lap in Tim’s 850 T5 estate as well. I couldn’t even keep up with him in my M3!

[ChemicalChaos]

Well done that man! I'm 26, I've lusted after an 850 T5 or R since childhood too, but never had the time or space or money for one in addition to the others cars I need for my hobbies.
A guy in my local car club used to have a banana yellow BTCC edition, mapped to 350bhp! He said it ate a set of front tyres every 3k miles

[LMPanda]

Good work on rescuing it OP! Such brilliantly understated cars and considerably well equipped for 24ish years old - Cruise, auto climate/AC (When it works..) heated electric seats etc..

Where in the East Midlands are you roughly? I'm between Notts & Derby and see two Gul's and a Flame Red wagon round here quite a bit. I've a 'normal' manual T5 wagon on about 195k (odometer stopped on 145k, obviously!!!) but with black R interior, R bumpers and the wooden steering wheel...

[greenarrow]

Fabulous car!! I love these old Volvos....A real hero car.

[Snazzyjake]

SiH said:

What did the remap do to your insurance? The last one I did was on a Citroen Xsara Picasso and laughably the insurance company added a 20% increase to my premium even though it had gone from being glacially slow to just tortoise slow...!

It made minimal difference tbf

[Snazzyjake]

C.MW said:

Love the car and your passion in looking after it. Looks great especially in the wagon form and the wheels from the V70R look excellent on this. With remap and a few tweaks it will be fast enough to rival modern peformance offerings which is uber cool. I hope you will enjoy it for a long, long time to come.

Thanks for the appreciation, although they're 850 t-5R wheels rather than v70R ones
And yes, that's the plan eventually. Can still surprise a few people who think their 320d is rapid

[Snazzyjake]

ChemicalChaos said:

Well done that man! I'm 26, I've lusted after an 850 T5 or R since childhood too, but never had the time or space or money for one in addition to the others cars I need for my hobbies.
A guy in my local car club used to have a banana yellow BTCC edition, mapped to 350bhp! He said it ate a set of front tyres every 3k miles

Thanks very much, pleased to report my front tyres last slightly longer than 3k, maybe 6-7k if I'm careful

[Snazzyjake]

LMPanda said:

Good work on rescuing it OP! Such brilliantly understated cars and considerably well equipped for 24ish years old - Cruise, auto climate/AC (When it works..) heated electric seats etc..

Where in the East Midlands are you roughly? I'm between Notts & Derby and see two Gul's and a Flame Red wagon round here quite a bit. I've a 'normal' manual T5 wagon on about 195k (odometer stopped on 145k, obviously!!!) but with black R interior, R bumpers and the wooden steering wheel...

Thanks for the kind words, and yes I 100% agree. Struggling to think of another car of a similar age with such a comprehensive list of creature comforts! (BMW e34/merc w124 perhaps?)
I'm in Leicester, but I have yet to see another 850 in the wild!
Love yours BTW, looks fantastic! . My dads T5 was in the exact same colour, minus the t-5R bumper, wheel and interior though. Hope you make it to 200k soon!