Volvo 850R Estate - Factory Manual with LSD
Discussion
Before launching into the full story, here's some highlights:
Engine was rebuilt 30k miles ago with new standard parts apart from the rods which were upgraded to forged h-beam rods.
Ported head, new valves, new valve seals, all new gaskets
20t turbo
3” core intercooler
Upgraded boost pipework
Larger throttle body
New ECU (ME 4.4 up from ME 4.3) with map specific to the work carried out
Custom fabricated MAF housing (standard Bosch MAF sensor)
Ferrita 3” downpipe with 200 cel cat
Ferrita 2.5” exhaust system
Koni adjustable shocks
Eibach springs
AP Racing front big brake kit
AP Racing floating Rotors
DS2500 pads
The car hasn't been on the dyno but "best guess" is ~400bhp and 550NM.
The previous owner of this car is of this parish, some might recognise the car. I have known him for quite a few years through a London based cycling forum, and in the past I've been fortunate enough to borrow it twice. The second time I borrowed it was a week long trip to the South of France and I proposed to my wife on that trip, so the car holds a great amount of sentimental value to me.
The night I proposed there was a classic car rally taking place just right next to the town we were staying in. We'd had this amazing meal, my other half said yes, and then, when we drove back to where we were staying, I chased 2 competition spec 911 rally cars and some french hot hatch competition cars on their way back from scrutineering, in the pitch black on beautiful French roads. I could have overtaken them at any time, they weren't flat out, but we had the windows down, the weather was good, the noises were amazing, I had just got engaged and it was one of the happiest drives of my life.
So, when the car came up for sale I was keen to buy it, it was a bit out of my budget so I tried to ignore it despite the "want" being very real, we had a perfectly suitable family car, a BMW E39 525d Touring, and my wife was sceptical about selling it to buy a 22 year old modified Volvo, regardless of the sentimental value. The previous owner contacted me directly, knowing how much I like the car, and we came to an agreement on price that suited us both, and the next thing I knew I was driving home in it!
The not entirely complete spec list provided to me by the previous owner in no specific order:
New number plate(s)
New R front bumper
New headlight wiper arms
New headlights
New headlight wiper motors
New bumper inserts
New NS fog light
New 3” core intercooler
New boost pipework
New (larger) throttle body
New ECU (ME 4.4 up from ME 4.3) with map specific to the work carried out
New engine loom
New horns
New engine mounts
New main bearings
New H-beam rods (forged)
Ported head, new valves, new valve seals, all new gaskets
New PCV system
New Cam sensor
New Crank sensor
New R clutch, pressure plate etc
New control arms
New Koni adjustable shocks
New AP floating rotors and DS2500 pads
New ABS sensors
Refurbished Volans
Goodyear Eagle F1s all round
New R exhaust manifold
New 20T turbo
ME7 airbox
Custom fabricated MAF housing (standard Bosch MAF sensor)
Astra VXR injectors
Reconditioned ABS control unit
Ferrita 3” downpipe with 200 cel cat
Ferrita 2.5” exhaust system
New heater matrix
New coolant pipes including bulkhead connectors
New aircon pipes (old ones leaking, aircon fully functional)
New windscreen (old one was delaminating at the bottom)
New wheel arch liners all round
New windscreen seals
New roof-rail seals
New roof-rails
New fuel filter
New fuel pump
New handbrake cables
New handbrake shoes
New rear discs+pads
New ABS sensors
Tailgate “fix kit”
New bumper supports (old ones rusted out)
Recent four wheel alignment by Volvo
"All parts OEM Volvo, and I know I have forgotten stuff."
The car has been looked after by Tim Williams and Volvo main dealers.
Here are some pics used in the for sale advert, the photo at Reims is an old one which I actually took on the trip to South of France, previous owner really liked it.
Here are some pics after picking it up:
Outside the side entrance to Hackney Town Hall
Back at home with the other 2:
Big Brakes
These two are polar opposites, my MX5 has Mikumi ITBs and makes about 150bhp, great fun on track but not comfy or fast in a straight line:
A visit to my parents and with my dad's 996 C2 cab - he's recently had a Hartech rebuild and he says it's feeling very strong, so we're keen to do a little tête-à-tête to see who is quicker, I'm pretty certain it's the Volvo:
My wife and I just had a baby in December, and I was keen to exercise my right to use some of her leave (Shared Parental Leave), so I submitted my request to my work to take a month off, which they legally have to accept, and instead of just mooching about at home in London, we thought we'd go spend a month in the sun on the beach with the bab. Settling on Puglia in Southern Italy, I floated the idea of driving down there and making a road trip of it, and she was again, sceptical at first, but I've very persuasive and the thought of lugging all the kit we'd need for the bab for a month down to Puglia on the plane was enough to convince her. We'd already made this plan before I bought the Volvo so for me, this was an absolute bonus, instead of chugging along the scenic route in a diesel, I'd get to properly enjoy the drive!
Due to the 5 month old baby, the drive down had to be multiple days, I plugged in the start and finish and the most direct route on Google Maps said 24 hours, so to limit the driving time to just 5-6 hours a day, it had to be 5 days to get there. This allowed for detours for nice roads and nice towns for food and rest stops. We didn't want to do just motorways, so the route on the way down was London - Longwy – Memmingen – Ala Avio (via Austria) – Ortona – Torre Colimena. Our plan was to drive when he napped, then give him a bit of awake time in the car seat, then stop when he got cranky. When stopped we’d find somewhere we could lay out a blanket or playmat for him to get a kick about, rather than going from car seat to pushchair or sling, which wouldn’t really give him any freedom in the day. In the afternoons we’d aim to be at our overnight destination by 17:30-18:00 to give him some decent playtime before his 19:30-20:00 bedtime.
Frustratingly, and I put no blame on the previous owner because I know the level of detail and fastidious care he applied to maintaining this car, less than a week before the trip, the A/C packed up. As he’d thrown a lot of money at Doves of Croydon Volvo main dealer to rectify this not a huge amount of time before selling the car, it was understandable that he was just as annoyed as I was about this, but with no time to get it sorted before the trip, my wife and I just had to concede that we were going to do a lot of sweating, and babies survived fine back in the day when cars had no A/C.
Other than that, the car behaved faultlessly, it was a rocketship when it needed to be, comfortable all the time, it absolutely munched miles with no concern, and when I showed it a set of corners it devoured them hungrily. I’ve got a little bit of a history of owning big cars that surprise in the twisties, a few years back I had a BMW E34 520i with aftermarket dampers and springs and the big brakes from the V12 E32 7 series, and that hustled a B road like no car of that size should, and the Volvo quite rightfully put that to shame.
So, car packed the night before, we set off towards Dover in time for the boy’s first nap.
In the queue for the ferry:
Rest stop in Belgium:
First of many, many, many fuel stops! Averaging about 75-80mph and keeping a constant-ish speed meant I could just about manage 30mpg, which meant just North of 400 miles to a 70L/15G tank. Anything faster or more interesting and the range plummeted, it’s certainly a thirsty car:
Overnight in Longwy, we intended to stay in Luxembourg but after calculating total costs for the month away we started penny pinching where we could, this purpose-built hotel was similar quality to a Premier Inn, conveniently located, and about a 1/3 of the price of staying in and around Luxembourg so made a lot of sense:
On day 2 we drove on a lot of de-restricted autobahn in Germany. For all the talk about the total length of derestricted sections reducing every year, almost our entire route through Germany was de-restricted. The Volvo easily managed an indicated 150mph, but the combination of full boot causing the front end to feel floaty, and the traffic levels, meant that I didn’t want to maintain 100mph+ for long periods of time. Bavarians are extremely aggressive drivers and if they were in the outside lane, they wanted to drive 120mph+, so it made it difficult to drive at the speed I wanted to. I ended up sticking to about 80mph as that was the speed of the 2nd lane, moving into the outside lane meant I had to keep accelerating and braking and it just wasn’t enjoyable. I did take the opportunity to stretch the legs and “have a play” with a couple of cars, a few Porsche, Audi, and BMW owners were suitably surprised by the pace, but on encountering my first 991 GT2 RS in the wild, not far South of Stuttgart, I quickly pulled into the outside lane to give chase, not because I thought I had a hope in hell of beating him, but I wanted to get a longer look at the back of the car. Sadly, that is a flipping quick car and I think seeing a 1996 Volvo on UK plates pull out aggressively behind him got the driver riled up and it tore off at a pace that was frankly impressive. I was pleased I got to see one at full chat even if it meant I didn’t get to appreciate it’s beauty for long.
The photo taking got a bit sparse here, I apologise, but we stopped overnight in Memmingen, and the next day I finally got to do some interesting driving in Austria. As it was the end of April, most of the decent passes were still closed, and while Glosslockner had just opened, the weather was horrific up there and it was too big a detour. So we settled for Kuthai pass, frustratingly, the bab fell asleep just as we began our ascent so all the pics had to be from the moving car taken by my wife:
Crossing the border and stopping to buy the vignette:
In a complete stroke of luck, a friend who had been recently made redundant and was touring Europe for 2 months on his Triumph Tiger was staying just 45 mins from us in Germany, and was planning on being in Innsbruck that afternoon. I had invited him to Puglia as part of his tour but it was too far South for him, but we hadn’t considered our routes might overlap when we were on the way down there. We lost communication with him in the morning as he was on the bike, there was a mix-up on my part as I’d calculated my route for the day wrong and I thought we had to cancel our meetup so I sent him a message letting him know, then I realised my mistake so I messaged him again, but as he was on the bike he hadn’t seen any of them. He’d shared his live location with me on WhatsApp so once we came off Kuthai pass, I joined the motorway to Innsbruck, and my wife checked his location, he was just 1 mile behind us! What a stroke of luck, so I slowed down, let him overtake, then followed him into Innsbruck.
After a great lunch and catch up, we wished each other luck on our separate journeys and we set off, despite initially planning on taking the valley road out of Austria, due to an extended lunch we cruised on the motorway, which still afforded epic scenery. The descent out of the Alps and into Italy is seemingly never-ending, we must have been going downhill for about 1.5 hours! Our destination in Ala Avio was just beautiful and made for a great overnight stop:
Initial parking spot, but we were told to move the car
not complaining…
Great balcony view!
The next day was a heavy day on the Italian Autostrada, about €40 in tolls, and a fair bit of tedium, no pics until our destination, Ortana. We stayed in a hotel rebuilt from ruins, with amazing views:
The only other guests (low season) were Japanese and had rented a Q2, the husband was incredibly shocked that I had driven a 22 year old car so far from home and shook my hand very vigorously
Day 5, we decided to stay off the Autostrada and enjoy the scenery. This was good and bad. The roads of Southern Italy are diabolical, but the coast is beautiful. Here we stopped for a coffee in Foggia, which allowed me to make dad jokes such as, “I haven’t the Foggia where we are”.
€1 for an Espresso and €1 for a cornetto (Italian Croissant) finally we were quids in.
Next stop, Taranto. My first of 4 interactions with local Mafioso, if you park in metered bays out of payment hours then people come and charge you €1/hour to “look after” your car. This is the same charge as the parking that goes in the meter when it’s during payment hours. I was warned of this in advance so I made sure I had plenty of €1 coins in my pocket. A friend had his rental car keyed many times in Lecce for telling one of these people to bugger off, so his advice was to just pay them.
Finally, after 5 days on the road, we arrived at the apartment in Torre Colimena!
I had taken a bottle of Meguiars Waterless Wash and Wax, basically quick detailer, with me, and some microfibre towels, so after jetwashing most of the crap off, I spent an hour using nearly the whole bottle (£15 and should be 4 cars worth). I was suitably impressed with the result, although it really helps that the car has had a ceramic coating applied so it needs little cleaning to get it looking good. Of course, it rained as soon as I finished.
The 3 weeks in Salento (the southern region of Puglia) were spent visiting towns, beaches, and eating seafood, salami, cheese, and pizza. The car was often left parked in positions that had me worried all day like below:
Gallipoli
Beach at Gallipoli
Clear water at Otranto
Amazing town of Matera with cave dwellings
More clear water in Otranto
After 3 heavenly weeks, we plotted a route home via Switzerland so we could take in the San Bernardino pass. Gotthard opened the day after we’d be going through Switzerland but we were very time restricted, so sadly I missed out on Gotthard and of course all the other incredible Swiss passes, but I think I’d rather go back with “the lads” and drive them properly, rather than as quick as I dare with a baby in the back. The Mille Miglia had been on recently and I researched some of the roads and I discovered that the section of route between Florence and Bologna, the SR65/SP65 was an incredible section, and tying in a stop in Florence overnight kept both me and the wife happy. I don’t have many photos, but I do have a full GoPro vid so will upload some clips later.
Futa Pass as part of the MM route
Duomo in Florence, I’d never been before, this place is incredible. I was blown away, I couldn’t believe the beauty of this town.
Paid €25 to park overnight in a garage in the old town, which meant I could drive into the very restricted zone in Florence
On the way up to Switzerland we stopped for a rest at Lake Como
And then after getting off the motorway a little early and up the 25 or so hairpins, we stopped overnight in a no frill hostel just past the village of San Bernardino, just past the barrier to the pass
The pass, well it was fantastic, but too many hairpins for my liking. The section at the top was beautiful and flowing, but up and down was all hairpins and the Volvo does not have the lock for tight hairpins. It was a giggle boosting out of them in 1st gear and utilising the massive brakes, but it got a little boring after a while.
The view from the top:
After the joy of the pass we settled back into the motorways and still enjoyed dramatic scenery to the sides, but that too slowly settled down and we checked off Basel and then the Vosges Mountains on our way to Bar-Le-Duc. I accidentally took the wrong turn and ended up doing the Vosges tunnel instead of going “over the top”, but I’ve driven the Vosges roads a couple of times before and they’re nothing to write home about. The tunnel allowed me to film some 2nd gear fun with whooshy noises and popping and banging.
Our parking spot overnight:
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to take any photos on the last day between there and home, there wasn’t much to see anyway, and we’ve all seen pics of cars at Calais a million times. We made it back fine, I was thoroughly satisfied with the car and the trip and there’s a big clean to do on the car both in and out. I clocked up around 4,400 miles on the trip, the car is now due an oil change, and it has picked up a chatter that goes away when the clutch pedal is depressed so I’m guessing it needs a new release bearing, possibly clutch too. On top of that there’s of course the A/C issue to rectify, it was sorely, sorely missed on the trip, if only because driving long distance with the windows open is incredibly tiring, but of more concern is a judder under braking. I bought the car knowing the front subframe mounts needed replacing, this seems to be manifesting itself mostly in this judder under braking, it didn’t seem an issue when I first picked it up, but 4,400 miles in a month has made it more of a pressing issue, it got to the point where I didn’t want to brake because it was annoying, which is obviously not an ideal scenario. I also need to get the E39 sold as it’s currently on my parents’ driveway and get my MX5 ready for a trackday at Llandow at the end of the month!
Engine was rebuilt 30k miles ago with new standard parts apart from the rods which were upgraded to forged h-beam rods.
Ported head, new valves, new valve seals, all new gaskets
20t turbo
3” core intercooler
Upgraded boost pipework
Larger throttle body
New ECU (ME 4.4 up from ME 4.3) with map specific to the work carried out
Custom fabricated MAF housing (standard Bosch MAF sensor)
Ferrita 3” downpipe with 200 cel cat
Ferrita 2.5” exhaust system
Koni adjustable shocks
Eibach springs
AP Racing front big brake kit
AP Racing floating Rotors
DS2500 pads
The car hasn't been on the dyno but "best guess" is ~400bhp and 550NM.
The previous owner of this car is of this parish, some might recognise the car. I have known him for quite a few years through a London based cycling forum, and in the past I've been fortunate enough to borrow it twice. The second time I borrowed it was a week long trip to the South of France and I proposed to my wife on that trip, so the car holds a great amount of sentimental value to me.
The night I proposed there was a classic car rally taking place just right next to the town we were staying in. We'd had this amazing meal, my other half said yes, and then, when we drove back to where we were staying, I chased 2 competition spec 911 rally cars and some french hot hatch competition cars on their way back from scrutineering, in the pitch black on beautiful French roads. I could have overtaken them at any time, they weren't flat out, but we had the windows down, the weather was good, the noises were amazing, I had just got engaged and it was one of the happiest drives of my life.
So, when the car came up for sale I was keen to buy it, it was a bit out of my budget so I tried to ignore it despite the "want" being very real, we had a perfectly suitable family car, a BMW E39 525d Touring, and my wife was sceptical about selling it to buy a 22 year old modified Volvo, regardless of the sentimental value. The previous owner contacted me directly, knowing how much I like the car, and we came to an agreement on price that suited us both, and the next thing I knew I was driving home in it!
The not entirely complete spec list provided to me by the previous owner in no specific order:
New number plate(s)
New R front bumper
New headlight wiper arms
New headlights
New headlight wiper motors
New bumper inserts
New NS fog light
New 3” core intercooler
New boost pipework
New (larger) throttle body
New ECU (ME 4.4 up from ME 4.3) with map specific to the work carried out
New engine loom
New horns
New engine mounts
New main bearings
New H-beam rods (forged)
Ported head, new valves, new valve seals, all new gaskets
New PCV system
New Cam sensor
New Crank sensor
New R clutch, pressure plate etc
New control arms
New Koni adjustable shocks
New AP floating rotors and DS2500 pads
New ABS sensors
Refurbished Volans
Goodyear Eagle F1s all round
New R exhaust manifold
New 20T turbo
ME7 airbox
Custom fabricated MAF housing (standard Bosch MAF sensor)
Astra VXR injectors
Reconditioned ABS control unit
Ferrita 3” downpipe with 200 cel cat
Ferrita 2.5” exhaust system
New heater matrix
New coolant pipes including bulkhead connectors
New aircon pipes (old ones leaking, aircon fully functional)
New windscreen (old one was delaminating at the bottom)
New wheel arch liners all round
New windscreen seals
New roof-rail seals
New roof-rails
New fuel filter
New fuel pump
New handbrake cables
New handbrake shoes
New rear discs+pads
New ABS sensors
Tailgate “fix kit”
New bumper supports (old ones rusted out)
Recent four wheel alignment by Volvo
"All parts OEM Volvo, and I know I have forgotten stuff."
The car has been looked after by Tim Williams and Volvo main dealers.
Here are some pics used in the for sale advert, the photo at Reims is an old one which I actually took on the trip to South of France, previous owner really liked it.
Here are some pics after picking it up:
Outside the side entrance to Hackney Town Hall
Back at home with the other 2:
Big Brakes
These two are polar opposites, my MX5 has Mikumi ITBs and makes about 150bhp, great fun on track but not comfy or fast in a straight line:
A visit to my parents and with my dad's 996 C2 cab - he's recently had a Hartech rebuild and he says it's feeling very strong, so we're keen to do a little tête-à-tête to see who is quicker, I'm pretty certain it's the Volvo:
My wife and I just had a baby in December, and I was keen to exercise my right to use some of her leave (Shared Parental Leave), so I submitted my request to my work to take a month off, which they legally have to accept, and instead of just mooching about at home in London, we thought we'd go spend a month in the sun on the beach with the bab. Settling on Puglia in Southern Italy, I floated the idea of driving down there and making a road trip of it, and she was again, sceptical at first, but I've very persuasive and the thought of lugging all the kit we'd need for the bab for a month down to Puglia on the plane was enough to convince her. We'd already made this plan before I bought the Volvo so for me, this was an absolute bonus, instead of chugging along the scenic route in a diesel, I'd get to properly enjoy the drive!
Due to the 5 month old baby, the drive down had to be multiple days, I plugged in the start and finish and the most direct route on Google Maps said 24 hours, so to limit the driving time to just 5-6 hours a day, it had to be 5 days to get there. This allowed for detours for nice roads and nice towns for food and rest stops. We didn't want to do just motorways, so the route on the way down was London - Longwy – Memmingen – Ala Avio (via Austria) – Ortona – Torre Colimena. Our plan was to drive when he napped, then give him a bit of awake time in the car seat, then stop when he got cranky. When stopped we’d find somewhere we could lay out a blanket or playmat for him to get a kick about, rather than going from car seat to pushchair or sling, which wouldn’t really give him any freedom in the day. In the afternoons we’d aim to be at our overnight destination by 17:30-18:00 to give him some decent playtime before his 19:30-20:00 bedtime.
Frustratingly, and I put no blame on the previous owner because I know the level of detail and fastidious care he applied to maintaining this car, less than a week before the trip, the A/C packed up. As he’d thrown a lot of money at Doves of Croydon Volvo main dealer to rectify this not a huge amount of time before selling the car, it was understandable that he was just as annoyed as I was about this, but with no time to get it sorted before the trip, my wife and I just had to concede that we were going to do a lot of sweating, and babies survived fine back in the day when cars had no A/C.
Other than that, the car behaved faultlessly, it was a rocketship when it needed to be, comfortable all the time, it absolutely munched miles with no concern, and when I showed it a set of corners it devoured them hungrily. I’ve got a little bit of a history of owning big cars that surprise in the twisties, a few years back I had a BMW E34 520i with aftermarket dampers and springs and the big brakes from the V12 E32 7 series, and that hustled a B road like no car of that size should, and the Volvo quite rightfully put that to shame.
So, car packed the night before, we set off towards Dover in time for the boy’s first nap.
In the queue for the ferry:
Rest stop in Belgium:
First of many, many, many fuel stops! Averaging about 75-80mph and keeping a constant-ish speed meant I could just about manage 30mpg, which meant just North of 400 miles to a 70L/15G tank. Anything faster or more interesting and the range plummeted, it’s certainly a thirsty car:
Overnight in Longwy, we intended to stay in Luxembourg but after calculating total costs for the month away we started penny pinching where we could, this purpose-built hotel was similar quality to a Premier Inn, conveniently located, and about a 1/3 of the price of staying in and around Luxembourg so made a lot of sense:
On day 2 we drove on a lot of de-restricted autobahn in Germany. For all the talk about the total length of derestricted sections reducing every year, almost our entire route through Germany was de-restricted. The Volvo easily managed an indicated 150mph, but the combination of full boot causing the front end to feel floaty, and the traffic levels, meant that I didn’t want to maintain 100mph+ for long periods of time. Bavarians are extremely aggressive drivers and if they were in the outside lane, they wanted to drive 120mph+, so it made it difficult to drive at the speed I wanted to. I ended up sticking to about 80mph as that was the speed of the 2nd lane, moving into the outside lane meant I had to keep accelerating and braking and it just wasn’t enjoyable. I did take the opportunity to stretch the legs and “have a play” with a couple of cars, a few Porsche, Audi, and BMW owners were suitably surprised by the pace, but on encountering my first 991 GT2 RS in the wild, not far South of Stuttgart, I quickly pulled into the outside lane to give chase, not because I thought I had a hope in hell of beating him, but I wanted to get a longer look at the back of the car. Sadly, that is a flipping quick car and I think seeing a 1996 Volvo on UK plates pull out aggressively behind him got the driver riled up and it tore off at a pace that was frankly impressive. I was pleased I got to see one at full chat even if it meant I didn’t get to appreciate it’s beauty for long.
The photo taking got a bit sparse here, I apologise, but we stopped overnight in Memmingen, and the next day I finally got to do some interesting driving in Austria. As it was the end of April, most of the decent passes were still closed, and while Glosslockner had just opened, the weather was horrific up there and it was too big a detour. So we settled for Kuthai pass, frustratingly, the bab fell asleep just as we began our ascent so all the pics had to be from the moving car taken by my wife:
Crossing the border and stopping to buy the vignette:
In a complete stroke of luck, a friend who had been recently made redundant and was touring Europe for 2 months on his Triumph Tiger was staying just 45 mins from us in Germany, and was planning on being in Innsbruck that afternoon. I had invited him to Puglia as part of his tour but it was too far South for him, but we hadn’t considered our routes might overlap when we were on the way down there. We lost communication with him in the morning as he was on the bike, there was a mix-up on my part as I’d calculated my route for the day wrong and I thought we had to cancel our meetup so I sent him a message letting him know, then I realised my mistake so I messaged him again, but as he was on the bike he hadn’t seen any of them. He’d shared his live location with me on WhatsApp so once we came off Kuthai pass, I joined the motorway to Innsbruck, and my wife checked his location, he was just 1 mile behind us! What a stroke of luck, so I slowed down, let him overtake, then followed him into Innsbruck.
After a great lunch and catch up, we wished each other luck on our separate journeys and we set off, despite initially planning on taking the valley road out of Austria, due to an extended lunch we cruised on the motorway, which still afforded epic scenery. The descent out of the Alps and into Italy is seemingly never-ending, we must have been going downhill for about 1.5 hours! Our destination in Ala Avio was just beautiful and made for a great overnight stop:
Initial parking spot, but we were told to move the car
not complaining…
Great balcony view!
The next day was a heavy day on the Italian Autostrada, about €40 in tolls, and a fair bit of tedium, no pics until our destination, Ortana. We stayed in a hotel rebuilt from ruins, with amazing views:
The only other guests (low season) were Japanese and had rented a Q2, the husband was incredibly shocked that I had driven a 22 year old car so far from home and shook my hand very vigorously
Day 5, we decided to stay off the Autostrada and enjoy the scenery. This was good and bad. The roads of Southern Italy are diabolical, but the coast is beautiful. Here we stopped for a coffee in Foggia, which allowed me to make dad jokes such as, “I haven’t the Foggia where we are”.
€1 for an Espresso and €1 for a cornetto (Italian Croissant) finally we were quids in.
Next stop, Taranto. My first of 4 interactions with local Mafioso, if you park in metered bays out of payment hours then people come and charge you €1/hour to “look after” your car. This is the same charge as the parking that goes in the meter when it’s during payment hours. I was warned of this in advance so I made sure I had plenty of €1 coins in my pocket. A friend had his rental car keyed many times in Lecce for telling one of these people to bugger off, so his advice was to just pay them.
Finally, after 5 days on the road, we arrived at the apartment in Torre Colimena!
I had taken a bottle of Meguiars Waterless Wash and Wax, basically quick detailer, with me, and some microfibre towels, so after jetwashing most of the crap off, I spent an hour using nearly the whole bottle (£15 and should be 4 cars worth). I was suitably impressed with the result, although it really helps that the car has had a ceramic coating applied so it needs little cleaning to get it looking good. Of course, it rained as soon as I finished.
The 3 weeks in Salento (the southern region of Puglia) were spent visiting towns, beaches, and eating seafood, salami, cheese, and pizza. The car was often left parked in positions that had me worried all day like below:
Gallipoli
Beach at Gallipoli
Clear water at Otranto
Amazing town of Matera with cave dwellings
More clear water in Otranto
After 3 heavenly weeks, we plotted a route home via Switzerland so we could take in the San Bernardino pass. Gotthard opened the day after we’d be going through Switzerland but we were very time restricted, so sadly I missed out on Gotthard and of course all the other incredible Swiss passes, but I think I’d rather go back with “the lads” and drive them properly, rather than as quick as I dare with a baby in the back. The Mille Miglia had been on recently and I researched some of the roads and I discovered that the section of route between Florence and Bologna, the SR65/SP65 was an incredible section, and tying in a stop in Florence overnight kept both me and the wife happy. I don’t have many photos, but I do have a full GoPro vid so will upload some clips later.
Futa Pass as part of the MM route
Duomo in Florence, I’d never been before, this place is incredible. I was blown away, I couldn’t believe the beauty of this town.
Paid €25 to park overnight in a garage in the old town, which meant I could drive into the very restricted zone in Florence
On the way up to Switzerland we stopped for a rest at Lake Como
And then after getting off the motorway a little early and up the 25 or so hairpins, we stopped overnight in a no frill hostel just past the village of San Bernardino, just past the barrier to the pass
The pass, well it was fantastic, but too many hairpins for my liking. The section at the top was beautiful and flowing, but up and down was all hairpins and the Volvo does not have the lock for tight hairpins. It was a giggle boosting out of them in 1st gear and utilising the massive brakes, but it got a little boring after a while.
The view from the top:
After the joy of the pass we settled back into the motorways and still enjoyed dramatic scenery to the sides, but that too slowly settled down and we checked off Basel and then the Vosges Mountains on our way to Bar-Le-Duc. I accidentally took the wrong turn and ended up doing the Vosges tunnel instead of going “over the top”, but I’ve driven the Vosges roads a couple of times before and they’re nothing to write home about. The tunnel allowed me to film some 2nd gear fun with whooshy noises and popping and banging.
Our parking spot overnight:
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to take any photos on the last day between there and home, there wasn’t much to see anyway, and we’ve all seen pics of cars at Calais a million times. We made it back fine, I was thoroughly satisfied with the car and the trip and there’s a big clean to do on the car both in and out. I clocked up around 4,400 miles on the trip, the car is now due an oil change, and it has picked up a chatter that goes away when the clutch pedal is depressed so I’m guessing it needs a new release bearing, possibly clutch too. On top of that there’s of course the A/C issue to rectify, it was sorely, sorely missed on the trip, if only because driving long distance with the windows open is incredibly tiring, but of more concern is a judder under braking. I bought the car knowing the front subframe mounts needed replacing, this seems to be manifesting itself mostly in this judder under braking, it didn’t seem an issue when I first picked it up, but 4,400 miles in a month has made it more of a pressing issue, it got to the point where I didn’t want to brake because it was annoying, which is obviously not an ideal scenario. I also need to get the E39 sold as it’s currently on my parents’ driveway and get my MX5 ready for a trackday at Llandow at the end of the month!
I had a series of fast Volvo estates in my 20’s. (1990’s)
740 Turbo, 940 Turbo and then 850 T5.
Me and the missus took our kids ski- ing every year in them and they were all an enormous amount of fun travelling through France extremely quickly then up the Alps. Completely reliable do everything cars.
Well done to you!
740 Turbo, 940 Turbo and then 850 T5.
Me and the missus took our kids ski- ing every year in them and they were all an enormous amount of fun travelling through France extremely quickly then up the Alps. Completely reliable do everything cars.
Well done to you!
Shadow R1 said:
If you get chance take some engine bay pics please.
Will do, but the previous owner was very keen on everything looking OEM so aside from one hard intercooler pipe across the rocker cover, there's nothing really to see!D_T_W said:
Lovely car, I am the previous previous owner but finances wouldn't allow me to buy it back unfortunately!
Looks like it was a very enjoyable trip!
Ah you're the owner before the previous owner! It was a bold purchase on my part, I haven't stretched myself, but it's definitely gone down as an extravagant indulgence. I'm hoping that as long as I maintain it in the same condition as I bought it, then it won't lose value.Looks like it was a very enjoyable trip!
thebraketester said:
That is my dream car right there. Love it.
It's definitely an achievable dream car, but it depends on how much work you can do yourself. I know that they can be picked up in half decent condition for <£5k, you don't need to spend £20k for a low mileage, mint manual. Not what I spent but there's one at a classic car dealer for that.rossub said:
What a fantastic trip. There’s no way I could have done that in a mid 90s car with wife and baby (breakdowns could have been a nightmare for you), but glad it all went well!
I too would not have done it any 90s car, not even any 90s Volvo, but knowing the level of care and preventative maintenance that this car has had lovingly and liberally applied to it, I had no qualms. I am an analyst so my personality and my day job require me to overthink everything and consider all avenues. I spent a fair whack on a European AA policy and travelled with comprehensive evidence of the value of the car so that I didn't end up in a write off scenario should something major have failed. On top of that a quick calculation showed that if the car had broken down and had to be recovered to the UK, the extra expenditure on a rental car beyond what would have been provided as part of the AA package would have cost similar or less than the fuel costs for the trip in this car. mwstewart said:
Nice trip, photos, and car. Thanks for that.
Cheers!Gtom said:
Top Mrs for letting you do 150mph with the kid in the car, I get moaned at for doing half that speed!
She's mostly relaxed about speed in general, I don't drive like a t
t, and I generally cruise in the UK sub 90 so mostly just keeping up with normal outside lane traffic speed. Regardless of legal or illegal, she won't "sit quietly" if I maintain triple digits for extended periods of time, but it's mostly on grounds of excessive engine, exhaust, wind, and road noise. She doesn't drive, never got a driving licence, but her dad is a pretty fast driver so her majority experience of being driven is being driven fast, so I am quite lucky. Previous girlfriends have not been so relaxed about it.Jonesy1972 said:
Great write up and an iconic motor imo (big fan of the estates in BTCC). Hope you get the niggles sorted and can continue to enjoy it.
Jonesy
Thank you, they shouldn't be too much trouble, I think the judder under braking will take some investigation but I don't see it being something that's incurable. Knowing that the front subframe mounts do need replacing mean I have a starting point, should that not cure it, my brow will become more furrowed! Jonesy
Carlson W6 said:
I had a series of fast Volvo estates in my 20’s. (1990’s)
740 Turbo, 940 Turbo and then 850 T5.
Me and the missus took our kids ski- ing every year in them and they were all an enormous amount of fun travelling through France extremely quickly then up the Alps. Completely reliable do everything cars.
Well done to you!
My wife was initially concerned about travelling long distance with the 5 month old but her eldest sister used to do the same as you, her and her husband were quite fanatic about their twice a year ski trips and they couldn't be bothered with the hassle of taking the kids on planes so used to drive to the alps twice a year! Hearing the stories of how easy it was for them helped convince her that it wouldn't be an issue, and it wasn't, the boy was good as gold. We have a lie flat car seat so he can stay in there as long as we want him to, it's basically a moses basket that goes in the car - with a very high safety rating - that also converts into a sit up car seat too. Once he was awake my wife just changed his toy every 15 mins to keep him entertained and if we still had 15-20 mins before we could stop and he was very grizzly the nursery rhymes came on and we all had a sing along.740 Turbo, 940 Turbo and then 850 T5.
Me and the missus took our kids ski- ing every year in them and they were all an enormous amount of fun travelling through France extremely quickly then up the Alps. Completely reliable do everything cars.
Well done to you!
Cookeh said:
Sublime, love it.
Cheers mate, I've been loving your thread and kept re-reading it on the run up to buying this one.I'm only 32 but I already seemed to have lost all spare time, I used to love having a rolling resto when I was younger, these days it's just easier, albeit much more expensive, to buy a sorted car or pay someone else to do the work. I do really miss the hands on aspect though, working on cars is one of my favourite things to do, even if I am terrible at it.
Despite having the real camera with me for the whole trip, I only took it out twice, once at the top of Futa pass (part of the Mille Miglia route near Florence), and the top of San Bernardino pass. You might notice I find the wheel/brake combo quite an aesthetically pleasing part of the car!
IMG_0144 by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
IMG_0134 by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
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url=https://flic.kr/p/26C5bff]IMG_0131[/url] by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
IMG_0119 by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
IMG_0112 by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
IMG_0127 by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
IMG_0144 by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
IMG_0134 by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/26C5bff]IMG_0131[/url] by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
IMG_0119 by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
IMG_0112 by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
IMG_0127 by NurseHolliday, on Flickr
Edited by nurseholliday on Friday 1st June 20:30
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