So…I’ve ditched the rotaries for now and snatched myself a cruise ship. It’s a 1996 Volvo 850R Wagon black with black suede/leather/walnut interior, currently with 170,000 miles. It was a pretty nice find 'cause it’s only had one owner, and I’ve got stacks and stacks of maintenance records from the dealer I work at. It’s got a knuckle-dragging 240 horsepower, and does 0-60 in the 6.5 second range. It’s got a 2.3L turbo 5 cyl, front wheel drive, loads of torque steer, and sweet little button on the console that says “sport”
So far it’s all stock. When I got it, the brakes were shot from sitting all winter, and the front strut tops were almost rotted through. It had a disgustingly high ride height so I figured I had to do something about it. Had some extra struts from an S60R lying around and extra S60 springs and strut tops. Modified the struts to fit the 850 knuckle, cut a coil off the springs to lower the front, and adjusted the camber to -2.5 degrees so it had mad tyte JDM baller status. Mind you I did all this because I’m a broke bastard and didn’t want to sell a kidney for a set of coil overs just yet (though those are next on my list).
Hugs corners surprisingly well for a wagon and doesn’t really feel as heavy as it is. So far, it’s taken down an RX8, Sentra Spec-V, and a new GTI Golf so it’s not too bad for a 15-year-old grandma car. Can’t say I have any complaints about the car. Gets about 23mpg around town on 93 octane and close to 30mpg on the thruway.
About a month ago, I went to Carousel Mall to go see a movie with my girlfriend and came out at about 12:30am and found that my 850 had been stolen. The cop that took my report was the one who actually ran into the theif on the road and chased him down rt 81. He said the highest recorded speed during the chase was 131mph. They eventually got him after he jumped a curb at 20mph and put my car into a tree. Apparently my car was also used as the getaway car for an armed robbery at a sunoco station that same night. So I consider myself lucky the car was in one piece when I got it back aside from the dent in the left front fender, burned up turbo, burned up brakes and cracked front bumper. Funny thing was, I found out the kid who did it is my girlfriend’s friend’s brother. We don’t know each other though.
Go here http://www.ongov.net/sheriff/ongov/lookup.html and type in “Lanzafame” in the box and you can view the charges against him the night he stole the car (he’s not yet charged with the robbery so that won’t be on there)
Planned mods for the winter are:
Coil-overs
TD04-18T turbo from the 2000 V70R
S60R exhaust manifold
Custom made 3" turbo-back exhaust
Water/meth injection
Upgrade the trans cooler
Rica ECM tune
and of course fix the body damage.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnd here’s some pics. Don’t shoot me if I do it wrong.
Just need a high flow cat and muffler.