Volvo T5 ... T5R... R ... R-design? Volvo Polestar? Just Polestar? But aren't all Volvo's grandparent's cars?

No... ohhh no!

Volvo has a racing heritage. Particularly when they decided to market their mad T5 as R and partner with TWR to show-off all over the BTCC scene, but they've always had a touch of MAD in their saloon and vans, it's just that, people don't know that until they try it.

It all starter much earlier than that. Around mid 70's, Volvo debuted a new line of cars: the 240 and 260 series. 

There is a constant miss mach on Volvo mode ranges, but I'll try my best to explain this:

Type	BMW Equivalent	Ford Equivalent	Honda Equivalent	VAG Equivalent	70's Volvo	80's Volvo	90's Volvo	00's Volvo	Today's Volvo
HatchBack	1 series	Focus	Civic	A3 / Golf / Leon	-	380	-	C30	C30
Sports hatchback	1m Series	Focus RS / Focus ST	Civic TypeR	S3 / Golf gti/ Sirrocco/LeonCupra	-	480 turbo	-	C30T5 C30 Polestar	-
Compact Family	3 Series Compact	Focus Sedan Focus Van	Civic Van	Jetta / Bora	140/240	240/440	-	-	V40Mk2
Family Coupe	3 Series Coupe	Focus Coupe	-	Passat CC	-	-	C70	-	-
Family Convertible	3 Series Convertible	Focus Convertible	-	EOS	-	-	C70 Coupe	C70	-
Family Minivan	2 series	Focus CMax	-	Touran	-	-	-	-	-
Compact Family SUV	X2	Puma Mk2	HRV	-	-	-	-	-	XC40
Family	3 Series	-	-	A4 / Passat	-	460	S40Mk1 V40Mk1	S40mk2 V50mk1	S40mk3 V50mk2
Family Sports	3M Series	-	-	S4	-	-	-	S40T5/AWD V50T5/AWD Polestar kit	- -
Comfort Family	5 Series	Mondeo	Accord	A6 / Octavia	164/260	260	850/S70/V70mk1	S60mk1 V70mk2	S60mk3 V60
Comfort Family Sports	5M Series	-	Accord TypeR	S6 / Octavia RS	-	-	850T5 850T5R 850R	S60T5 V70T5 S60R V70R	S60 / V60 Polestar
Comfort Family SUV	X3	Kuga	CRV	Q5/Tiguan	-	-	XC70 mk1	XC70 mk2	XC60
Limo	7 Series	Scorpio	Legacy	A8 / Arteon	-	740/760	900	S80	S80 V90
Limo Sports	7M Series	-	-	S8	-	740Turbo 760Turbo	-	S80T6	-
SUV	X5 Series	-	-	Q7/Touareg	-	-	-	XC90	XC90

So, back to the 200's...the 200 series where Volvo's bet into the family car. 

But the chassis was a significant improvement form previous cars and the engines where over-engineered to stand abuse and engineering refinement over the years. So Volvo, aimed against the BMW and Mercedes market, and pumped up the power on the straight 6. They also added better brakes to 

And then, the hairdryer squad hit Volvo and they decided to Turbo-it:

 

... and later, Inter-cool-it:

And with that, people thought: This could be just good enough to race! Guess what...it was!

The 700 series:

It worked, so, Why not adding another "hairdryer" to the 700 series?

And them all the sudden, Volvo had gained the reputation to create cars that just looked normal, until you floor'em and they burn rubber and disappear like they urged an exorcism. So, cleverly, they started appealing to the "kid" inside every man that once was a petrol head, but then got a kids of his own.

And then the P80 chassis

At this point, things started to get VERY interesting. 

Volvo was working on a new line of chassis "p80" and a new line of engines "Volvo Modular engine", and since they where expecting some fast performer versions, and some competition usage, they really thought on chassis dynamics that where fun "within Volvo concepts" and not just safe and habitable.

The 850 was good from start and after some "test production years" mainly with 2.0 and 2.5 NA 5 cylinder engines, then started the T5, T5R, glt(t2) and then the R.

  

The rear Deltalink auto-steering suspension, meant that the car, though enormous, did had some agility... argumentatively a weird one: You need to go all out loading the rear suspension (typically with a lift-off, yang-in, full-throttle), to smash the rubber bushings and twist the geometry into the turn-in. If you get it right, it feels like there is a magical force holding the massive rear end and helping you corner, while the front wheels shred the tires through the bend... but it does help the massive thing turn. So not brilliant, definitely not refined as a BMW; expensive on tires; but efficient, sure.

So it comes with no surprise that this happened:

Volvo teamed up with TomWakinshawRacing team and then:

yes! that is a van... on the BTCC racing track... and it was tremendous.

The 850 in the BTCC where not even close to the production T5, T5R or R... but the driving experience was not that different (causing Lamers to leave the team, as he had a 850T5 and thought the driving too similar to consider the BTCC car pro enough). And they looked the same, and since the road going versions where crazy powerful, people loved them.

The BTCC was a masterpiece of clever engineering around the rules from the brilliant TWR team.

First of all the car was NA 2.0 and not Turbo 2.3, however, the 5 cylinder aspirated 2.0 rev'd to 8500 rpm and produced 325bhp (with 13.5:1 compression pistons), but it was always publicized as 280+ after catalytic converter silencer fitting, and delivered it to ground via a 6 speed gearbox.

Engine was mounted lower and further back into the car.

Driving position was also move towards the centre of the car, next to the B pillar, full racing car style.

But the best part, the cherry on top of the cake was the cylinder head. You see BTCC rules stated that the angle of the valves could not be changed from production cars... but there is 2 ways to look at this: 

1- angle towards the head

2- angle towards the block

The standard head could not be tuned enough make a competitive Turing car engine.

You see, the heads from the production 2.0 and 2.5 engines where built towards easiness in production and cost reduction, so the 58 degree intake-exhaust amplitude is less than optimal and high-range, leaves the engine struggling for air volume. The regulations allowed for bigger valves, but not the angle.

So a prototype was built to study the air-flow dynamics and have a goal. This design alone managed 260bhp. It was still a good 25bhp shy of the standard power output from... well everyone else.

So someone at TWR thought outside of the box and move the logic of looking at valve angles from a head geometry perspective into what I really what is valve-to-block angle. 

and regulation said nothing about shaving the head unilaterally and tilting-it. 

There was also nothing saying you couldn't cut the head top-off and fit a custom part to allow bigger valves and cams. 

The result was sort of a Frankenstein with a small part of the original head, sandwiched between custom parts and angled so the cylinder intake and air swirl optimization managed 235bhp. 

And the Deltalink was also 

... gone!

It got known for being a susprise, as no one expected a flying brick to have a decent score in BTCC, but it did... and also got known for this spectacular crash, at the hand of Kevin Burt:

With all this marketing, the 850 got a bunch of "variations" of it's powerful form, over the years.

They all differ slightly, but in the end, they revolve around the same basic concept:

Volvo 850 T5 -     2.3l, 225bhp 300nm

Volvo 850 T5-R - 2.3l, 240bhp 330nm

Volvo 850 R -       2.3l, 250bhp 350nm (bigger turbo)

Enter the V70mk1 / S60 mk1 / C70 mk1

Then, it got a revised front and dashboard, but it was still the 850

But the versioning got a lot more clear:

Volvo C70/V70/S60 T5 - 2.3l, 240bhp 330nm

Volvo V70/S60 R-            2.3l, 250bhp 350nm (bigger turbo)

For some reason I'm yet to compute, the C70 got a convertible... good, but not the R! You can have a Family Van R, but oh no not the coupe :s maybe I'm the crazy one.

 

S40Mk1 V40Mk1

Around the same time, Volvo and Mitsubishi started spawning the results of their affair. The mk1 S40, with a chassis equal to the Mitsubishi charisma was released.

And of course, with a lighter and more nimble chassis, it got straight into TWR hands and this happened:

It got the same engine as it's big brothers, but now on a much more nimble chassis, results where easy to obtain. 

For the street? well they used the "modular" word on the Volvo Modular Engine Design, So they lost a full cylinder off the 2.3 T5, and a 1.95ltr 200bhp T4 was added to the range.

It was fast, it was nimbler than the 850 or S70, but the entire car was built with comfort in mind and the steering response on the road car was just too light and filtered for my liking. The one I loved best to drive had just had a failure on the steering assistance :S a car that, broken, is more interesting to drive.

But the best from this Mitsubishi/Volvo romance is still on the forge, and will come to play at a latter time, under the most unexpected recipe.

MK2 V70/MK2 S60

Volvo had just been brought by Ford. So, new chassis where being produced and new cars had to fit them.

The P2 project spawned a lot of new Volvo models, amongst them the mk2 versions of the V70 and S60.

By then, Volvo had ditched TWR and brought a company called "Flash Engineering". It renamed it as Polestar Engineering and tasked PROdrive to help them get going.

But it was not until the MK3 version of the S60 and V70 that Polestar was really "open for business". 

And this is going to get a Twist for the smaller cars... later, however having them already planning at this point was very important.

The MK2 V70 and S60 had a clear definition too:

Volvo mk2 V70/S60 T5 - 2.4l, 260bhp 350nm (BorgWarner  turbo) 

Volvo mk2 V70/S60 R-    2.5l, 300bhp 400nm (BorgWarner  turbo) AWD

Hold the press. Everyone goes after the R, but the T5, on had the Unicorn engine from Volvo. The Glorious B5244T5. Internals good for 600BHP, standard with a BorgWarner K24... And the basis that Polestar used to tune for high power applications. 

Most people drool about a Toyota 2JZ, or a Nissan RB26DETT, but every one of those engines will require forjed internals beyond 600BHP, much like the Volvo 4T5. So this engine is within that class of engineering, and with one less piston.

Enter the C30 / MK2 S40 / MK2 V50 and MK2 C70

One other Volvo-Ford product was the P1 chassis. The FordFocus CMAX chassis, on a volvo security reinforced frame and crazy Volvo turbo engines.

I don't know if you ever driven a ford since 1996, but they ALL have spectacular chassis (except the KA mk2, based on the garbage fiat 500). 

The Focus is and excellent driver's car and the chassis it just perfect. So The brand new C30, The Mk2 S40, the V50 and mk2 C70, all based out of these chassis are brilliant cars to drive... they are fun, engaging and very sporty. 

And they all where very easy to  understand:

Volvo C30/mk2 S40/ Mk2 c70, V50 T5 - 2.5l, 220bhp 320nm (k04 low pressure turbo) optional AWD

What wait!? The BEST CHASSIS so far, No R, No T5R, No 4T5 and BorgWarner K24, no Prodrive, no Polestar? Has the world gone crazy!? No racing team!? what?

Yeah.. R was transformed into R-Design... a body kit and interior trim option... Pfff

The ONLY real good thing that made the P1 chassis to squeeze it to the limits, was... DSTC. 

Sure you don't really understand this, allow-me to explain:

    TC - Traction Control (combats wheel spin on acceleration by applying brakes and dosing the engine)

    STC - Stability and Traction Control ( it's the Volvo equivalent to ESP from VW, DSC from BWM) Corrects the car trajectory control by applying brakes individually and dosing the engine, depending on circumstances.

    DSTC - Dynamic Stability And Traction Control - It's the STC with added Active Yaw Control - This establishes thresholds on the STC so that it only interveins on the the verge of full loss of control. 

What does it mean? You arrive into a round about, full on brakes, flick the car with some opposite turn to unsettle the chassis, then turn into the drift and full power on the car... and the car allows you to get away with it! If you steer out of the movement or hit the brakes, the car understands you're in trouble and unleashes the fun-cutter STC to get you back on track and regain your dignity before crashing.

And this we have to thank for... Volvo and Mitsubishi sexual affair! 

See what makes the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution perform those perfectly controlled 4WD drifts that seem to last forever? yup Active Yaw Control.

   

You can have it on your Rally based Mitsubishi... or your wife's Volvo to take the kids to school... and I'm the crazy one. But I'm not complaining! Far from it. I can always add the engine and the R you neglects to the car... not the chassis electronics, so I take that option over the R, sure.

Important Note - DSTC can be present in any P1 or P2 based Volvo... yes the gigantic XC90 has DSTC as an option, and yes I've drifted the monster... it's weird. 

So, what happened? Only the Volvo management team can say but rumours are: They invested into the S60Mk3 Polestar for racing and for public "power saloon", based out of the glorious 4T5 unit... but then I've not seen a single 4T5 based polestar.

And that Ford was not happy with the C30 cannibalising part of the Ford Focus sales.

However, at the dealership, you could order a Polestar Optimisation pack for your T5. Composed by some literature, bigger wheels, firmer springs, engine and gearbox optimisation.

Again, easy to understand:

Volvo C30/mk2 S40/ Mk2 c70, V50 T5 Polestar optimized - 2.5l, 250bhp 380nm optional AWD

MK3 S60/ V60 (and Polestar finally out of the box)

So S60 got it's Mk3 revision. A much more dynamic chassis, so nice to drive that even the diesel 1.6 option is nice to throw into a corner.

At this point in time, Polestar was full on racing and the S60 Polestar for the road was based not on the 4T5 but on the T6. So it was a 3.0,  cylinder 351bhp 500nm beast.

 

and the road version:

MK2 C30 Polestar (just a concept)

Just before Polestar lost it's mind for good and turned electrrrrrr (sorry can't pronounce that without vomiting all over), they where actually heading in the right direction. 

They used the learned success on the P1 chassis and where working on the C30 Polestar to annihilate all the other RS and GTi's and AMG's and M's the market had on the segment.

 

Based out of the same chassis as the Focus RS, after the focus RS ended production without a worthy replacement (another stupidity I'm yet to compute), also packing AWD and even more power, this was a brutal little car. .. that never got into production and probably never will as polestar collapsed into building toy cars with batteries and stuff.

How pleasant would this baby be?

2.5 T5 engine producing 451bhp and 510nm with a BorgWarner K26... i mean.... just perfect.

But a Limited 250unit production, fixed this into : another car you'll never have! Why?

Check TopGear opinion on it and you'll get the point. 

So now that you understand what is what, lets have a table with Volvo Only and the influence on the sports side of things.

Car	70's Sports	70's Production	80's Sports	80's Production	90's Sports	90's Production	00's Sports	00's Production	2010's sports	2010's Production
240 / 260	-	Volvo	Eggenberger Motorsport / Magnum Racing	Volvo	-	-	-	-	-	-
480 Turbo	-	Volvo/Renault	-	Volvo	-	-	-	-	-	-
740 Turbo	-	-	-	Volvo	-	-	-	-	-	-
850T5 850T5R 850R C70T5 Mk1	-	-		Volvo	TWR	Volvo/Porsche	-	-	-	-
C30T5 S40T5 V50T5 C70T5 mk2	-	-	-	-	TWR (s40 mk1)	Volvo/Porsche	Polestar (C30)	Volvo (Polestar Engineering Kit)	-	-
S60T5 S60R V70T5 V70R	-	-	-	-	-	-	Prodrive/Polestar	Volvo	Polestar	-
S60 Polestar	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Polestar	Volvo/Polestar
C30 Polestar limited	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Volvo/Polestar

So with this graph, you should now know that, at a point in time, Volvo went PRO racing with the 850 under TWR engineering, and used Porsche engineering to soup up the street versions. Then it got brought by Ford Motor Company and severed ties with TWR and started Polestar engineering (brought as "flash Engineering" and now called "cyan" as Polestar was spined-off to build... electric crap), a more "close to the chest" thing. Much like M division for BMW, AMG for Mercedes, etc., But before all that, they got an extra marital thing with Mitsubishi, and AYC came out of it, cloaked as DSTC.

By now, You now know that:

Volvo is terrible maintaining sports teams, Volvo builds some crazy cars every now and then, and that between the jump from TWR to Prodrive & Polestar to Polestar, the C30,S40,V50 and mk2 c70 where forgotten in terms of R options, while the S60 and V70 where blessed with the R option and also a pearl of an engine on the t5 260bhp versions.

Recently, Volvo went all crazy and created a brand new Engine with 4 cylinders, 2.0 and both turbo and compressor in line, copying VW. I got nothing against this engine that can , depending on the version and couplings (electric hybrid BS), produce all sorts of BHP . But I can't forgive Volvo for killing the glorious T4, T5 and T6, and transforming the T3, T4, T5, T6, T8 into marketing labels for the same 4 pot engine and a different config. It's just not decent, and Polestar got it very right by using the true T6 for the S60Polestar and the true T5 for the C30Polestar.

One thing is clear:

If you see a 90's, 00's or 10's Volvo ahead of you, and there is anything resembling  a T4, T5, T6, R or a blue label with a white small star in it, don't assume he is getting away from your path and allow you to blast by. It may just, floor-it and leave you in the dust, just because... and still look like Soccer mum's car.