My Volvo

This is my 1996 Volvo 850R. I really like this car! It has a 2.3 liter 5 cylinder turbocharged engine that makes 240HP stock. I have modified it with a Bosch Motronics ECU chip, a sport exhaust from ipd, a short ram air intake with a K&N air filter, Samco silicone turbo hoses, and an MSD high output coil (all also from ipd). Also the suspension has been tweaked with heavy-duty performance Bilstein front struts, rear shocks, and a strut tower brace; progressive rate springs; and slightly wider wheels. Braking is enhanced with oversize 302mm front brake rotors. 

The beast makes nearly 300HP in this configuration! With a stiff suspension and low profile tires (205-45ZR17's), you can really feel the road. There's practically no body roll in the corners and the original stock Pirelli P-Zero Asymmetrico's really grip. It handles like it's on rails!

The problem with the Pirellis though is wear. They only last 15 to 20k miles and they're kinda expensive (Tire Rack helps some though). So I tried out some Yokohama AVS ES100's. The performance specs are almost as good as the Pirellis' and the wear rating is nearly double. I got a bit more wheel spin, and I could feel a small bit of slip earlier under hard cornering, but they performed fairly well during the first half of their tread life. However once they were fairly well worn, they would track road grooves terribly, and in the end the wear was only about 25% longer than the Pirellis.

Next I tried Yokohama Parada Spec 2's. They were much better, more stable and were good in the rain even. After they had some wear on them however, they generate quite a bit of noise. They have also worn unevenly, but I think that is because the OEM wheels are now a bit out-of-round. Even when the tires were new and freshly balanced, I had a vibration at speed.

So late summer of 2010 I replaced the OEM wheels with black Pegasus replica wheels from ipd. The original 1995 850 R's that were extremely limited production had the Pegasus wheels on them. The ipd replicas are well-built and look great, and were quite reasonably priced. On them, I put Hankook Ventus V12 evo K110's - these tires have great reviews and are also very good on price. So far they've been great. I had to go a bit up in size to fit the wider width of the new wheels, so now I have 215-45ZR 17's on. The larger footprint have added grip and consequently nearly eliminated wheelspin.

As for acceleration, once it gets into the boost, it's a rush! I don't have any hard numbers, but it will really surprise some "hot" cars out there. It's not the best from a standing start (boost doesn't seriously kick in until you're turning around 2300RPM), but acceleration from 50 to 100 is impressive. One advantage I have over the stock configuration is that I've shortened the turbo wastegate actuator arm. This has the effect of increasing the boost the turbocharger makes at partially open throttle. With the extra default boost, when I stomp on the gas and jump to wide open throttle, the turbo is already spooled up and the boost comes on harder and earlier.

When I first got the car, it had all the amenities for 1996: 200Watt stereo system with 8 speakers, AM/FM, Cassette, Single CD in the dash and a 6 CD changer in the trunk. Last year I started having a lot of problems with the head unit - to the point it finally failed. So I replaced it with an aftermarket system that has HD radio, Bluetooth with a mic for hands-free phone operation, MP3/aac, etc. playback from CD's and a USB port in the center console for connecting players or even a USB Drive. I carry several large USB drives each with certain genres of music on it. Right now I have about 13GB of music in my car. Details: Pioneer double-din head unit (FH-P8000BT), Kicker speakers.

The interior is black leather (Alcatel - some kind of suede), front seats are both power with 3-position memory and heaters. Safety-wise (Volvo's claim to fame), there are 4 airbags and all the other usual Volvo goodies. All in all, a well-appointed automobile.

Externally, everything but the grille and exhaust tip is stock. Well, I suppose you can see the oversize front brake rotors as well, and with all the brake calipers painted red it's pretty noticeable. If you peek in close, you can see the yellow Bilstein's also. This photo is with the OEM wheels.

If you want more information about Volvos in general, visit their Web site. I thoroughly enjoy their cars (this is my second one), and I highly recommend picking one up for yourself. If the photos below aren't enough for you, there are more in the photo gallery here.