“The Rocket” – My 2007.5 Passion Red S60R Story/Thread (And Other Volvos) | SwedeSpeed

Hey There! If you don’t know me, my name is Jake. I own a 2007 Volvo S60R, Passion Red, and Gobi. I’m not like these other fantastic forum members that have unique stories and photography skills; yet. LOL.

I wanted to thank some of my favorite members that inspired me to start this thread. (In no particular order, all of these guys are awesome)

ZZZZZZZ

tabormeister

Julien

bigern79

JaredR

paradoxicallymodified

ScottishBrick

I’d love to format this like ZZZZZZZ (Ian), and I have a big story to tell on all of the Volvos! But I don’t have the time to write a huge story just yet, LOL

I’m going to format this like JaredR in the start (You have an excellent thread Jared LOL)

What’s the history of this car?
Writing this story on behalf of my Dad:
I’d have to look pretty far back in time and buy another Carfax for it. HOWEVER, I do know that I got unproportionally lucky with my caR. My S60R has had three owners before myself; however, the set of circumstances of how I got my perfect car is pretty crazy. “The Rocket’s” first owner owned the car for a LONG while in Colorado; after many years, the car sold to another person who owned it in New Mexico for a few years, until the third owner, in Colorado Springs, owned the car for six months until he sold. Okay? Nothing odd so far, so what? And here’s where things go hilarious. It was the night before, I had my doubts as I’d never owned a modern (P2) sedan at that point, and I had concerns with the room as my family needed to fit in the seats, so I was thinking “12k for a red Volvo? I mean, it has AUX. Huh. It seems farfetched, and It’s just too far away. Before I headed to bed, I talked to a buddy staying with me headed to a concert in the same direction as the car EARLY in the morning. I asked him what he thought. I remembered he owned an 04 M66, and he LOVED it. He said when they were taken care of, they were amazing cars. I bit the bullet; he was waking up VERY early, It was getting late, and I had run out of ideas. I took an old shoebox and rainbow hair ties under the sink and wrapped up 11 thousand dollars in cash, I didn’t have the extra thousand at the time, and It didn’t matter to me if the car got away because I had no idea. I don’t think my buddy knew a difference between the AW-55 and the TF-80SC. Anyways, later that morning, my buddy got to the seller’s house at 7:15 in the morning, which was 2 hours and 26 minutes away, pretty early if you ask me, LOL. My buddy test drove the car, and he thought it was AMAZING, he offered the shoebox, but it turns out the seller needed extra money for his house and needed to sell. The seller LOVED the car and had no intention to sell besides this. After some intense negotiations, he’s okay with the difference and needed it immediately. That night, I headed down and got to the seller’s house late. I dropped my Black XC90 (That’s a story I’ll get into later) in a parking lot nearby as my buddy was coming back through the area with some trusted buddies and would keep it safe for the night. I walked for 8 minutes in a nice residential part of Colorado Springs. He gave me a quick overview of the car, had some extra parts in the trunk, gave me a quick orientation, and was on my way. The car smelled of wonderful Volvo leather. I could tell she was meticulously maintained, at only 77k miles on a decently optioned 2007 for 11k, this was a steal, and It had SO much power, The car was stock, and it was amazingly comfortable. My 850R was fast, but not THIS fast. It was wonderful! It was a busy night on the highway. Fortunately, this car takes the left lane like a champ, and I was having the time of my life. I noticed when stopping for fuel that the car had a horrendous turning radius, not a problem. I learned to live with it, but that was pretty confusing the first night. LOL. I was messing with the 4C, and I found out what the “S” below the shift knob was. That was a fun journey with the gears. WOW! I knew this was the right thing to do, and four years later, at 102k, I haven’t looked back since.

What was done to it before I got it?

Almost nothing actually, LOL.

A Parking Sensor was replaced, as well as the fluids, and the car seemed too fast to be stock. And I’ve had a few friends that own these cars, and a shop owner say, “Are you sure this is stock?” and since I haven’t torn far enough in yet, I still don’t know LOL. That’s going to change soon.

What have I done so far?

Amazingly, in the four years I’ve owned it, I’ve done almost nothing. I installed IPD Foglights as my car didn’t have any. Last year, I finally decided to bite the bullet AGAIN and wanted some performance mods, I had a lot of money saved up, and I heard many friends tell me this was a good option. I called IPD and said, “I want my S60R to be as fast as it can. What do I do?” Looking back, spending that much on a 4T4 and extras wasn’t a great decision. I’ll have to find out, LOL. 6.5k later and many boxes later, I got the full kit from IPD.

-IPD 4T4 Turbo

-do88 Front-mount intercooler

-Blue silicone pipes

-IPD Downpipe

Now, the thing is, the kit was pretty nice. however, there were some issues, the turbo seemed EXTREMELY rough, A horrible finish for a four thousand dollar turbo, and a crushed oil feed/return line (Not sure, please don’t kill me yet LOL) and the downpipe looked rough, intercooler had some flattened fins, a depressing shipping job. Here are a few photos.

Mind the fingernails. That’s insane, LOL. I reached out to Ken at IPD and told him about the situation. He said that was normal as they were handmade, fiiiiine. LOL. He was concerned about the crushed line, though, and wanted to get it replaced immediately. I called him, and he said it would take upwards of 14 days as it’s not made individually, so he’d have to reach out to the factory. Okay, fine. I gave him my details and hoped for the best. It’s been seven months, LOL. I’m going to follow up on that soon. That stupid turbo is the only thing keeping me starting, going to follow up on that immediately!
I also replaced my front “Volvo” Slash as the car came like this.

What does it still need/what am I planning on doing? (in no particular order)

• Full Stage 0 (that one first, please LOL)
• Install the upgrades
• Re-clip where the fender meets this panel? Not sure what to call it yet, LOL.

• Clean pollen out of all of the windows and odd gaps.
• Active Chassis is inoperable for now.
• Parking Assistance Warnings
• Check Engine Light
• HU-850 Knobs are very inconsistent.
• Replace my AUX Port (I bought another, I need to install it)
• Maybe a real subwoofer?
• Sandblast/Repaint my Pegs.
• Clean the engine bay and care for it significantly.
• New firewall lining/hood blanket.
• Adjust headlights (Hopefully upgrade to the projectors everyone loves)
• Fix vacuum leaks/odd idle at cold start
• Brakes.
• Headlight wiper motors
• Clean moths out of rear taillights (don’t ask, LOL)
• Learn how to clean and love on the exterior and interior properly.
• Sport Kit (Side Skirts, Rear Diffuser If You Can Even Call It That LOL, Maybe The Front, We’ll See*

Finally, PICTURES! If anyone cares, LOL.

No way! A whole TWO pictures. LMAO. I’m sorry about that; once I can find a space that keeps privacy safe or I’m safe to post my plate, I’ve got DOZENS. Let me know!

There’s my thread, for now, disappointing as ever. LOL. I hope you stick with me in the future!