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Volvo's “R” performance brand, founded memorably in 1993 by the 850 T5R wagon, has been canned. It will be replaced, according to an interview given by Volvo's CEO Fredrik Arp to Automotive News Europe; "we are working on the next phase," he said, "but it will not be immediate."

Sources at Volvo had suggested that the feeling towards the future of the R brand was lukewarm at the end of last year. Back then, it was in connection with the possibility of a hotter, all-wheel drive version of the C30 hatchback, which was roundly dismissed by company insiders. More telling was the announcement that there would be no V8 power for the new V70 wagon though, and therefore no successor for the V70R beyond the more conservative-looking 295hp V70 T6.

Slow sales, both in Europe and the U.S., have been blamed for the decision. With R-badged versions of the S60 and V70 on sale in the States for the last two years, Volvo was expecting 3800 combined sales in 2006; it ended up shifting little more than 1600 cars – and, according to Volvo, U.S. sales were the highest of any country.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/automot ... try/36582/

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Marty Howard
2011 NASA SE Factory Five Challenge Champion
Track Events Logistics Coordinator - TZC/THSCC
2007 Factory Five Challenge Car.
http://www.mh-motorsports.com

Don't get me started. I'm the original owner of an 850R wagon which I still have, and we went through both a 2004 V70R and then a 2005 V70R (Volvo worked a deal on the 2005 to prevent us from lemoning the 04) which we then sold 11 months later after a boatload of problems. In the meantime, the 1996 keeps on chugging along. The 2005 was a 6MT after we had the auto on the 2004 but then learned of severe torque and rpm restrictions they placed on the engine with that tranny (and did not tell the buyer or publish that information). I'll never buy another Volvo after the V70R experiences.

Some may remember the dark blue V70R I ran at some VIR events back in 2005...it did perform better than one would expect on track until you really push it hard and the Haldex AWD unit trips offline due to overheating (which is easy to do with it when you are really pushing the car hard). The crazy thing is they give you NO WARNING it is going to shutdown. It just goes offline, and the car is instantly FWD. You can imagine how "interesting" such a happening could be tracking out of hog pen on the limit for example. I was fortunate that when a shutdown occurred, it was entering Oak Tree. When I tried to roll on power, the tach just zoomed. I thought I had blown the clutch, but it was just the inside front tire now spinning like crazy. This is a dangerous design issue in my opinion, and I have communicated that directly with Volvo through a corporate contact (like they cared).

I could go on about other issues when tracking the car and add to that list the long line of warranty repairs the car needed from the heating system failing at 800 miles, to the passenger seat WHIPS system breaking and causing the seatback to rock back and forth, to the 2004 stranding my wife on the road, to the exhaust system that thermally deformed in a hard rain and pushed into the driveshaft (common problem on these cars), to a rear axle bearing failing at 12k miles (common problem on these cars), to the rear suspension toe-change on compression design issue that causes the tail of the car to side-hop when hitting one side bumps (common to all S60R and V70R since it is a design issue -- Volvo tried to address it with updated bushings, but they did next to nothing in my experience), etc... This list actually goes on a good bit further...sigh. Oh, forgot about the thing having a 44 foot turning circle -- you never get over that when you drive it, and my wife HATED it.

We cut our losses on that 2005 in Dec of 2005 and sold the car to a wholesale dealer.

Oh well, I guess I did get started...sorry.

Here's a link to a brief video of the 2005 R at VIR South: http://www.tradebotics.com/V70R/VIR%20Grand/MVI_8201.AVI

Chuck

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

After I bought my 850T to haul around my dog, I realized I really liked the car. I started researching newer V70's and thought about purchasing a V70R. Well, if you go out to Volvospeed or Quickbricks sites and read up, it becomes very clear that the newer generation cars are not like the older generations. The new ones, like Chuck has talked about, have problems galore. It's funny how the problem cars seem to be 2000+ models, just after Ford acquired them - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

I'm curious to hear Bill Fitzgeralds opinions of his as contrasted with yours Chuck, he's been autocrossing his at the last couple events, and actually done quite well in it.

The one benefit to them is that dealers are practically GIVING them away. They are nice cars for the street.

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2012 MX-5 Sport SUV

I've talked to Bill a bit, but I did not want to scare him about his car in anyway or take away from the enjoyment of the car. I don't think he has had many issues so far.

I autocrossed the car once with Triad, and it did really well for such a heavy and large car; however, I did experience another issue I didn't mention above. On one of my runs, I had the ( much discussed on Swedespeed R forum) brake failure issue rear its head. I went for the brakes and only had about 10% braking if that. I went wide using understeer to scrub speed, and the next try at the brakes had them working perfectly fine (as they did before that including 6 track days at VIR with PFC97 pads and after that). My take on it is that it is an ABS system/pump issue, but Volvo cannot "find anything wrong" with the cars of all the people who have had the issue and taken their cars to dealers. It was the only time I experienced it on our two cars, and it only happened on one of the five runs. The car was sold the next month.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

That's a real shame. My parents had a couple of Volvos when I was growing up and that's what inspired me to seek out my current wagon. In my only car accident to date, I got hit nearly head on in my parents car by an idiot in a Volare (sp?) wagon when he crossed the center line. The old 240 was totaled but I didn't get a scratch. Needless to say, my parents promptly bought another 240.

The older ones were nearly bulletproof and the fact that my '88 740 wagon just rolled over 350k miles is a testament to that. Obviously the engine and transmission aren't exactly "stock" but everything else in the car is including the rear-end.

Jim

I have heard from a few people that the brake issue could be knock-back. The Rotors and hubs tend to flex quite a bit under hard cornering, so the pads get pushed away from the rotor. One good pump puts them back into place but with hardly no preasure. The next one actually gets the brakes to work.

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Marty Howard
2011 NASA SE Factory Five Challenge Champion
Track Events Logistics Coordinator - TZC/THSCC
2007 Factory Five Challenge Car.
http://www.mh-motorsports.com

I've considered doing a HPDE in my 850 because I think it would be fun to pass people in my wagon

The only reason I haven't is that even upgrading to the 302mm front brakes, it's a very heavy car to stop and not being sure if the tranny cooler could keep up with the amount of work I would put it through.

I still may anyway - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

Nope, it's definitely not knockback. I've had plenty experience of knockback in 26 years of tracking cars. The problem I described above with the V70R is that the pedal is rock hard with almost zero response from the brakes. I only had that one experience with the problem, but others have been able to replicate the issue.

While we're talking about R brakes...the stock rotors are not up to the task of braking this car on a track like VIR when it is driven to its limits. They cone severely (cantilever bend in the direction of the cooler rotor face) and you lose braking ability. Fortunately, this is more of a gradual event, and you can recognize the feeling and know you have to back off. This was with PFC97 pads, Motul 600 and R-comps coupled with maximum braking on VIR full. You only get a couple of full on laps before coning becomes apparent. You can then see evidence of the problem in the rotor contact wear.

I went through a lot of analysis of this issue with Dave Zeckhausen.

One other tidbit...tracking with race pads turns the calipers gold (from gray), and the white R turns orange.
http://www.tradebotics.com/Brakes/LF-caliper.jpg

Of course none of this is uncommon with street car brake systems when used on track to the max of the car's ability with race pads, Motul and R-comps. On the M5 I melted the dust covers and even melted part of a caliper piston seal -- hence the Stoptechs on it now. Maybe I'm just a bit too crazy with the braking zones.

Chuck

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Chuck, that's very similar to what I got in Eric Petersen's MR2 Spyder. It happened a lot when braking hard and turning at the same time, unloading a lot of weight off the rear of the car.

Most call it 'ice mode' and it happens usually when a 4 channel ABS systems senses a wheel lock up on the rear of the car, thinking it's off the ground and goes into a fault mode. The pedal gets extremely hard (almost like the power booster has failed) and regardless of how hard you try to push it, it gives you about 10-15% braking power. Once the car settles and the wheels roll enough, it clears the fault, but in autocross it's too late.

This also happens on ABS equipped Celica GT's when we ran them in G-Stock. The only cure was to stop trail braking or take your chances. I remember running the 2002 Peru Tour and on my last run of day 2, Eric cranked up the front compression about 10 clicks and every time I tried to trail brake I got ice mode. Needless to say, He reduced the compression by about 5 clicks his last run .

Some ABS systems can't figure out how the rear wheels will lock before the front, thus the computer goes into shutdown.

- AB, who's lost a lot of good runs due to Ice mode over the last 5 years

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

Aaron,

That sounds exactly like what is going on actually. However, in the R's case, the rear is not airborne, stopped, etc. I've always thought it was an ABS system problem, so it sounds like they need to look at the programming on the ABS system on those cars. People have reported that they can trigger the issue during normal braking to a stop sign, and for some reason talk about having a slight uphill slope -- all of the reports I've seen have been straight line braking, like mine was at that autox (was going to become trail braking, but at the initial application the car was straight). Speaking of which, that system seems to pulse at a lower frequency than BMW ABS systems and isn't quite as effective as it could be imo.

Chuck

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

In the Toyotas it could also be in a straight line as well, but not as frequently. I personally think it sensed lockup on one of the rear wheels (when it was not locked up) and through the ABS system into a fault mode. On the Spyder and the Celica GT, the rear never left the ground.

On my Celica (which doesn't have ABS) I've never experienced Ice mode in over 100 autocrosses in it. - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

I've had the same evil thoughts.

I even added a tranny cooler so the AOD wouldn't destroy itself under stress and with the full IPD suspension, I think it would surprise a ton of folks. That would suck getting passed by a wagon especially if it is an automatic.

Maybe one day...

Jim

I remember taking my integra to the drag strip and lining up next to an 850R and getting smoked, man was THAT embarassing. . .

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2012 MX-5 Sport SUV

Talking of station wagon on the racetrack.
Here a link to Dave car from K&E

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2572611

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Patrice
1973 911 former track and AX car.
2016 VW GTI
2002 Nissan Sentra (Olivier car)
2012 Nissan Juke (Kathy car)
2010 Suzuki Kizashi (Audrey car)