Performance: Project Battlewagon

A tribute to the BTCC Volvo 850 Estate

Story and photos by Budd Stanley, additional photo courtesy of Volvo Canada

What is the first thing you think about when you see a Volvo 850 wagon? You’ll likely see a very safe, reliable wagon that makes for a useful family hauler to get the kids to school and soccer practice, and for bringing home the groceries. And I wouldn’t hold that against you, as the 850 was ideal for daily duties. I, however, think differently when I see an 850. I’m reminded of one of the most famous motorsport publicity stunts of all time, when Volvo entered a station wagon into the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). The move was unheard of, and in 1994, the BTCC was one of the most competitive racing series on the planet. The big Volvo was scorned at by critics who thought the car would make a mockery of the brand. Despite some obvious disadvantages and not scoring any wins, the car proved to be quite successful in its first season.

It all started in 1993, when Volvo wanted to go racing with its all-new 850. The BTCC was the most popular and competitive form of saloon racing at the time, so Volvo commissioned Steffanson Automotive (SAM) to build a prototype to see if the car would be competitive. Folklore suggests that the estate concept did not originate within Volvo but rather as the result of a chance circumstance. It’s said that the day SAM went to the factory to pick up an 850 body for development, only estate versions were available. With time constraints looming, they took the wagon and built the first competition version of the 850. After time in Volvo’s wind tunnel, it was determined that the long flat roof of the wagon created greater down-force than the sedan, and so with the obvious added publicity of competing with such a car, it was an 850 wagon that lined up for the first race of the 1994 BTCC season, run by TWR.

And so, in tribute to this great moment in motorsports, we bring you our first track day project car. As many know, this space has been used to give technical advice to those who want to get a little more performance out of their cars for track days. Well, we are now going to put our money where our mouth is, and will be applying these tactics to our very own Volvo 850 wagon. It’s not the coolest looking car to start with, but it will definitely be something unique. It will be an experiment to see how much we can improve the performance of a relatively docile 850. Our goal is to build a car that can be used for everyday duties, while giving us a thrill to drive on the track.

We start with a cheaply-acquired 1995 850 GLT with a naturally aspirated 2.4L straight-5. Surprisingly enough, we were able to find one with a manual gearbox, which will help both our performance and driving pleasure goals. Let’s get to the starting specs. One major hurdle we will have to overcome will be the car’s weight, listed in at 1,515 kg with the vast majority hanging over the front wheels. The 2.4L puts out a decent 168 hp and 190 lb-ft. Zero-to-60 comes in just under ten seconds while the quarter mile takes 17. However, more important is lap time. So we took our bone-stock Battlewagon over to the good folks at Driving Unlimited and the B.C. Driving Centre at the Pitt Meadows airport east of Vancouver. On this closed course, we set up our own track for data collecting duties. We created a miniature replica of the Donington Park circuit, the track where the 850 got its first BTCC race win.

To say the 850 took to the track like a duck to water would be foolish. A quarter million kilometres on the clock had severely hampered the car’s performance abilities as it wallowed around the course. The suspension and chassis were worn and soft, braking was insufficient, power could not be put down to the road and was extremely unbalanced and I spent just as much energy trying to stay in my seat, than trying to eek out the best lap time. After some warmup and photo shoot laps, we were ready for a full timed run. That is until the radiator exploded. Our practice sessions only yielded a best time of 48.6 seconds, and to be honest, I wasn’t likely to improve that number by more than a second.

So we have our car and our baseline data and have explored the problems that will need addressing – time to go to work. Stay tuned to see what we do to the Battlewagon to make her a more competitive track day car, while keeping it a useful daily driver.

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