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Posts Tagged “

Volvo

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24 hours of lemons altamont

When You Go From 44th To 15th Place In Six Hours, You Get A Few Dings

When racing started at Altamont on Sunday, we knew we had some catching up to do; thanks to overestimation of fuel consumption, some pit slowness, and a penalty incurred by yours truly (more on that later), we started the day in 44th place out of 90 cars. We had the power, we had the skilled drivers, and we had a block of Swedish steel that could shrug off hits from the biggest opponents. And, speaking of the biggest opponents, a certain bullying orange Plymouth fared quite badly in a series of paint-trading incidents with our own WhatWouldJesseDo; see that orange paint on the tire in the image above?

2:00 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Murilee Martin
2,197 views, 76 comments

Latest by whatwouldjessedo: @Harms: Well, I hope I didn't do anything to piss anybody off out there. If I did, my defense is beginner's ignorance, or maybe the V8olvo helped me channel the war-mongering ways of the Norse Gods. In any case, that was my more »

el caminos

The Volvo XC70chero Brings The Dream To Sweden

There's a stanza in a Stephen Malkmus song that goes "And the trashed young Scandi mistook me for a Swede. her slurred medieval accent was like a puddle at my feet. You could see chopped tobacco in her teeth." This made us wonder if Swedish people actually were into chewing tobacco and, by extension, if there were Swedish rednecks... because where there are rednecks there are El Caminos. Did this mean that there were Swedish El Caminos? Indeed. Here's a prime example of an XC70chero (owned by Ford) looking awesome outside the Volvo Museum. To make it better, it's being pulled by a six-wheel XC90chero. Pinch us.

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12:05 AM on Tue May 13 2008
By Matt Hardigree
1,805 views, 34 comments

Latest by RobertRyan1: Someone at Volvo has been looking at Australian cars and getting ideas. This is the second "Ute" from Volvo as far as 6 x6 goes they are reasonably common here. [www.4wdaction.com.au] [www.fwdqld.com.au] more »

hoon of the day

Swedish Hoons Hold Crazy Illegal Burnout Contest

If you thought the Swedish limo drifting was awesome, you're really gonna like this. It's an annual illegal burnout competition held in Stockholm, and the contestants don't hold anything back. Ripping tires to shreds? That's nothing. Pour down some gasoline and bring on the flames!
[h/t to Bo at sportbilen.se!]

2:40 PM on Mon May 12 2008
By marnold
3,735 views, 41 comments

altamont lemons 2008

24 Hours of LeMons Early Birds Get Set Up At Altamont

Teams competing in the 24 Hours of LeMons race can check in and get their cars past the tech inspection judges on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Teams showing up on Friday get first shot at the good pit spaces, and Team Black Metal V8olvo decided to claim some real estate today. Tech inspection went smoothly and we're cleared to race. More »

10:00 PM on Fri May 9 2008
By Murilee Martin
2,545 views, 55 comments

24 hours of lemons

Broken Engine, Bad Cooling System Dictate Last-Minute V8olvo Thrash

Team Black Metal V8olvo was fortunate enough to get some track time at a Volvo club event at Thunderhill last week, and so we got the car all put together and trailered it on up to Willows. It worked pretty well, with our modified Thunderbird springs and swaybars and 242 Turbo brakes giving the car decent handling and stopping, and while the Ford 302 couldn't keep up with the wild-ass super-boosted turbo four-bangers on the other cars, it was able to get out of its own way. But then the car started running hot...
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Feature

2:20 PM on Thu May 8 2008
By Murilee Martin
2,706 views, 74 comments

Latest by SnowBot: I've heard that you need a bleed valve on a remote rad like that to make sure you get all the air out of the system.. might have been the gremlin in your awesome set up there.. more »

down on the street bonus edition

Volvo Bertone Flashes Italo-Swedish Style On Denver's Boulevards

There's a Volvo 262C parked in a driveway scant blocks from my house; it would be a super-cool DOTS car, but it's off-limits. Not so for the Bertone in ejacobs' neighborhood, which is on the street and set up for easy photography with no other vehicles nearby. These things sold for 15 grand back in the day, well over twice the price of a regular 242; this one has some rust, but looks pretty complete.

4:00 PM on Tue May 6 2008
By Murilee Martin
923 views, 40 comments

Latest by GTBruiser: My brother bought a black over silver Bertone Volvo to match his black/silver '75 Jaguar XJC. He even added matching K.H. wire wheels and leaping cat hood ornament. more »

24 hours of lemons

Black Metal V8olvo Now Equipped With Rebel Swedish Flag Roof

When your V8-powered Volvo race car already has a 5-speed, Fiero wing, and hood scoop, what more do you need? That's right, a great big Swedish Rebel Flag on the roof! We had this planned for quite a while (though several commenters read our minds and suggested the idea), and we finally made it happen last weekend. Before you go and read Señor Loverman's TTAC writeup, make the jump to check out the blow-by-blow. [The Truth About Cars] More »

6:20 PM on Mon May 5 2008
By Murilee Martin
3,291 views, 51 comments

Latest by koi: I'm 100% swede, and I approve of this volvo - and it's awsome styling - for a full 110% !!! If you guys doesn't reach the checkerd flag first in that v8 powered swedish behemoth, I will take a flight over more »

junkyard find

Volvo 1800S Joins Its Amazon Brethren At East Bay Junkyard

Not long after undertw rescued a bunch of parts from a Volvo Amazon featured in this series, another old Volvo has been put out on the same yard. This is no run-of-the-mill Amazon, however- we're looking at a genuine Volvo 1800S (I'm going to say it's a '63, based on the grille) with plenty of good components ready for the picking.

2:40 PM on Thu May 1 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,064 views, 67 comments

24 hours of lemons

Real $500 Race Cars Have Manual Transmissions... And Inner-Tube Shifter Boots!

When we started out to build a V8-powered Volvo 244 for the May 10-11 24 Hours of LeMons race, most of the team members assumed we'd be using the good ol' C4 automatic transmission. You know, automatics are way easier to swap, with no troublesome clutch linkage to futz with. But Crew Chief Hellhammer (formerly known as Dave) pointed out that he's built plenty of manual-equipped rods, and then he directed our attention to several Ford V8-compatible T-5 5-speeds (and no C4s) sitting in the weeds behind his shop (he's been working on a '57 Ford project, so his stash-o-parts is heavy on Ford running gear). With our minds filled with images of slushboxes overheating and dying at last year's Altamont race, we decided to go with three pedals instead of two... then held our collective breath when it came time to make it happen for real.
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4:00 PM on Tue Apr 29 2008
By Murilee Martin
2,619 views, 52 comments

Latest by HankelTransform: I know it's not the right year or model, but damn if this isn't a great name for a car: [m.assetbar.com] more »

engine of the day

Engine of the Day: Volvo Red Block

Even though I just replaced a perfectly good Volvo B23 engine with a Ford 302, that doesn't mean I lack appreciation for the tough and versatile OHC slant-four Volvo engine family, which powered the majority of Volvo cars from the late 70s through the late 90s. Available with 8 valves or 16, naturally aspirated or turbocharged, the Red Block was the direct descendant of the early-60s-vintage pushrod B18. [Wikipedia]

2:00 PM on Tue Apr 22 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,872 views, 33 comments

safety

Fuel Filler Leak? Fix It With A Rubber Glove!

If you potential Volvo 240 racers want to see a good reason for relocating the fuel filler on your cars, just take a look at the photo above. Yes, that's a Volvo 245 that got bashed in the right rear during a 2006 24 Hours of LeMons race, and that scary gasoline-filled balloon hanging from the fuel filler area is a latex glove ziptied over the end of the busted-off filler tube. We can thank Ecurie Ecrappe for being so helpful to a competing team by performing this totally safe Field Expedient Repair; thanks also to EE member TheEastBayKid for sending in the photo. [Hardtuned]

2:40 PM on Mon Apr 21 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,356 views, 28 comments

Latest by chrystlubitshi: wow... spaten optimator is my typing friend... "damn...." more »

24 hours of lemons

Fixing A Volvo Weakness: Fuel Filler Relocation

While the Black Metal V8olvo crew was working on the rear of the car, we took care of the Number One Priority immediately by installing a Fiero wing. Now, you'd think that such a wing would radiate such an impenetrable aura of cool that no other driver would dare hit our car, but we figured it wouldn't hurt to get some cheap insurance by dealing with one of the most vulnerable points on the Volvo 240 race car: the fuel filler. By all accounts, LeMons Volvos tend to get hit in the right rear, which knocks the fuel filler pipe loose and causes a fuel leak, which makes the guys with the black flags get all upset (and they've got a two-strikes-yer-out policy on fuel leaks). It's an easy fix, though!
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3:00 PM on Fri Apr 18 2008
By Murilee Martin
3,002 views, 37 comments

Latest by thatguy01: Charles, isn't "To Do Pile" another genre entirely? more »

down on the street

1977 Volvo 244DL

I had meant to put more Volvo 240s in this series, since the island is full of good examples (and, besides, I'm racing one next month). But somehow a few months have gone by since the last one, so here's a somewhat earlier example I found parked near the '82 Mercedes-Benz 380SL. And yes, I noticed that '79 Civic across the street while I was shooting this Volvo; don't worry, Honda fans, I shot it while I was there.
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9:00 AM on Thu Apr 17 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,275 views, 42 comments

Latest by OJs_Glove: My mom had a '78 245DL wagon when I was a kid (traded in her Mazda RX-3 for it). Had the 4 speed with O/D, white with blue vinyl inside. Man that was an awesome car. She put almost 300K more »

24 hours of lemons

What Makes A Race Car Faster? A Fiero Wing, Of Course!

When we added a great big hood scoop to our V8 Volvo LeMons racer, it immediately became apparent that something was missing from the picture. But what? Walking around to the rear of the car, it hit us: we lacked a wing! Skeptics might point out that a wing would be aerodynamically meaningless on a brick-shaped car running on a track with top speeds of about 60 (the crueler skeptics might even refer to a wing as "useless dead weight"), but we know that's hogwash- the bigger the wing, the faster the car!
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4:00 PM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Murilee Martin
3,709 views, 90 comments

Latest by Spasticteapot: @JSmith53: Lame as I am, I actually could fabricate one of those. All you need to do is cut the shape out of nickel silver, and then etch the design much as one would etch a PCB. (All you need to more »

24 hours of lemons

Another Advantage To Racing A Volvo: Free Parts Car!

Now that the 24 Hours of LeMons shit-talking has begun, I find it necessary to present some more evidence to show that the V8-ified Volvo 240 is Your Best Race Car Value, even though it means giving away some tricks to our real competition (i.e., the other teams driving Swedish steel). You see, some teams are coming up with this crazy talk about how they've got the best bang-for-buck with their Cavaliers or MR2s and such, but are there countless MR2s sitting in back yards, just waiting for some kind, trailer-equipped soul to come haul them away for free? As we've seen, perception of the poor brick-shaped Göteborg machine has gone from beloved daily driver to gas-swilling outcast recently, with local junkyards bursting at the seams with 242s, 244s, and 245s. That means that a Craigslist ad with the headline "DEAD VOLVO WANTED, WILL TOW" gets an immediate response.
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4:00 PM on Tue Apr 15 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,706 views, 34 comments

Latest by Murilee Martin: @chrystlubitshi: At the Thunderhill LeMons, there were many announcements on the PA like "Anyone with an extra 3-series BMW transmission, please go talk to Team Garbooned BMW," and many teams sent guys off on panicky junkyard runs during the race. more »

new cars

2009 Executive Volvos As Comfy As A Swedish Bordello

We all know that Volvos XC90 and S80 are safe places to be, but check the "executive" box in participating countries and you could also be in for all the creature comforts that being an exec entails. In addition to the pastures worth of hand-sewn bovine and forests of wood inserts you'd expect, the Volvo also gets eight-inch LCD screens, crystal glasses for the rear passengers, ambient lighting and emblems galore. But our favorite feature has to be the massage chair feature built-in to the front seats. The system works by inflating five pockets of air built into the soft hide leather that inflate and deflate sequentially to mimic a wave-like motion. This is a nice feature for the chauffeur who needs to relax after a long day of getting his Swedish meatballs busted by some whiny CEO. Press release and more pics below.

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12:45 PM on Thu Apr 10 2008
By Matt Hardigree
1,180 views, 17 comments

Latest by FuzzyPlushroom: No thanks. I own a real Volvo, and it only has half an interior. No more door pockets. No power windows. No console. But damn, it has heated seats, and that's all I need. more »

24 hours of lemons

Welcome To Low-Budget Race Car Wiring Hell!

So we solved the throttle-linkage problem on our V8-ized Volvo race car, but what about electrical stuff? The factory wiring, switches, and instruments weren't going to work with our new engine. In fact, we'd torn out every scrap of wire in the car, preferring to start with a blank electrical slate. As the creator of the Junkyard Boogaloo Boombox, I figured whipping up an all-junkyard instrument panel on a shoestring budget wouldn't be too much hassle. I was able to scrounge up an old Auto Meter temperature gauge and a few toggle switches in my Boxes-O-Car-Crap™, and a street sign nice piece of sheet aluminum materialized in the garage, but what about the rest of the stuff?
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Feature

2:45 PM on Wed Apr 9 2008
By Murilee Martin
3,308 views, 58 comments

Latest by FuzzyPlushroom: @narf: ...cutting power to the engine at random intervals, forcing you to pull over, wait a few minutes, then restart it and drive off! This is especially fun with a dead battery. more »

new cars

Volvo Hybrid Garbage Truck Proves Hybrids Can't Clean Everything

What's the best thing about garbage trucks? They're loud. At least that's what you think when you're seven. But once you grow into your big-boy pants, that monstrosity slowly lumbering down your street, waking you up at 5AM every Tuesday, gets to be just a tad annoying after a while. Well, now Volvo has a solution, a hybrid garbage truck. They claim it can operate almost silently, and feel so confident about it they've provided a video of it in action. Currently the trucks are just being tested in select parts of Sweden, but we certainly wouldn't mind seeing these, and not hearing them, in our neighborhood. Press release after the jump. More »

11:20 AM on Wed Apr 9 2008
By marnold
1,503 views, 29 comments

Latest by FuzzyPlushroom: @Picarso: We've had several collisions with our dumpster... is that really a good idea? more »