My name is Rick and I have a Volvo addiction.
During daytime I’m a sales engineer, which means sitting behind a desk and being responsible all day. So to scratch the itch of working with my hands, I mess around with Volvos at night. Until the wife calls me in. Sometimes I sneak back out.
I’d love to share some pictures, but I’m currently dodging responsibilities at work, so that will have to wait.
Currently I have a bit of a collection:
1. 2002 V40 T4. Pulled it out of a field with a broken engine. Rebuilt it, restored it. It keeps fighting me with every step. It’s on coilovers and has a laggy 18T turbo on it, accompanied by all the supporting mods of course. Hits 2.0 bar of boost accidentally sometimes. Quick but hard to drive. It’s my daily.
2. 2003 S60 T5. My first car! Rebuilt engine two years ago, which I haven’t even broken in yet because of car no.1 always fighting me. The plan is to run about 550HP and I’m in the middle of AWD swapping it.
3. 2000 S60 2.4T. Got it for a dime with a broken gearbox. Put a low-mile box in it and replaced the seals and clutch. Has a 16T turbo, downpipe, injectors etc. But stock brakes, suspension and 10 year old all-season tyres. Alignment is way out of whack after the subframe has been out. Sketchy as ****. Hilarous to hoon.
4. 2006 XC90 2.5T. Bought it with a cracked engine. Currently rebuilding it. It will get an 18T turbo and a shimmed block, but otherwise completely stock. Putting an M58 manual 5-speed in it, because the original automatic is already on it’s last leg. It’s the towing vehicle of the fleet.
To shake it up a bit:
5. 2003 Renault Clio! Groceries getter and sacrificial vehicle for my wife to drive. She’s only crashed it twice this year. Used to be my backup car. I don’t care anymore. It currently has four different panel tints and wears them with pride. Chassis is still straight somehow. But the front lights “keep falling out” according to the wife. Getting random extra dents in the front bumper probably has nothing to do with it. It WILL lift a rear tyre when cornering hard, and it screams like it has ITBs! One of the best French automobiles ever.
6. 1973 Opel Manta A. Small little european sports car. Looks a bit like an american muscle car, but small. Likes to kick the rear out for no *** reason at all. Steering is more of an indication of where you would the car like to go. It’ll go there eventually. It also tries to follow any breeze it comes across. I recommend to never drive it over 100mph. Do as I recommend, not as I do.
Future plans:
- Kill the V40 on the upcoming trackday. It’s already pushing it’s main bearings out so that’s something achievable I think. Backup engine is already in the shed.
- Find an Amazon to desecrate. I want to put a whiteblock in it (4 5 or 6 cyl idc), rip the old interior out and try to cram as much P2 interior in there as possible. Daily it.
- Finish car no.2
- Sell car no.3 before i crack the engine or gearbox.
- Make the Manta survivable.