Super1800GTR
09-05-2005, 02:25 PM
A little history: When I was 14 I started looking at what car I wanted to buy and work on as a hobby. Originally I wanted an old Mopar (allways loved Dukes of Hazzard). My father suggested a Volvo because we were primarially a Volvo family owning mostly 240s. I did a little research on the internet & found the Vclassics website where I found pictures of 120's, 544's, 444's, 140's, and 1800's. The 1800 caught my eye. I didn't even look like a Volvo. I decided that this was the car I wanted to buy. Now where would I find one??
About a month or so after my 15th birthday I saw an ad in the newspaper that had a 1970 1800E for sale in southern Indiana for $9000. The car was WAY out of my price range but we were curious. We drove up there on a Sat. morning, talked w/ the seller, and learned a little more about the car. We learned that he also had a parts car ('71 1800) that came w/ the '70. After a little persuasion we decided to buy the cars. The '70 for my father to drive & the '71 for me to tool around w/. Over the next year I spent all my time tearing apart the '71 teaching myself along the way.
The '70 was driven a little but mostly neglected because my father didn't have the time or space to fix what it needed to make it road worthy. After showing so much interest in working on the '71 my father decided to give me the '70 for my 16th birthday. I spent the next 6th months or so rebuilding the brakes, tweaking a few things, and learning to drive a stick (taught my self :). ). I drove it for about a year when I bought my 1st car (w/ my own money) which was the 245t. I decided to give the 1800 a rest and drove the 245.
After driving the turbo I "caught the bug". I wanted more power & performance out of my 1800. Afterall, it looked like a Ferarri, shouldn't it perform like one? Doing some research I found little on the topic of vintage Volvo performance. I found a few comanies, however, that specialized in developing aftermarket parts for my car. One of these companies (Vintage Performance Developments) mentioned the development of a supercharger kit for the b20. This kit would enable the engine to make a reliable 200+ crank HP. A feat only previously accomplished by the best hardcore Volvo racers using super high CR & race gas.
The hampster wheel in my head started turning as I was visioning one of the fastest streetable Volvo's ever. An idea was born that became known as Super1800gtr. Supercharged Volvo 1800. The GTR is a little ricy thanks to everyone who puts a gtr sticker on their civic. It does come from the Nissan Skyline GTR.
Every project car has a theme, wether it's a ricy civiv or integra, or a full blown pro street muscle car. The idea for my car was a street "legal" race car. If Volvo got together with another company to develope the ultamite 1800. Similar to some special edition, limited run cars such as the Skyline 400R. My car won't be limited to a bunch of bolt on accessories, however. The idea is to make the car perform as well as it looks. I'm taking after the Challenger in the movie The Vanishing Point using similar wheels and keeping w/ the original white. As I said above... I allways liked old MOPARs.
Obviously I plan on keeping the stock lines and geometry of the car intact. I'll be using the original engine and the majority of the suspension components. The exterior will be slightly modified inorder to fit wider wheels & tires and a few things will need to be done to revert it back to the old style w/o the marker lights and the crome strip that curves up @ the door instead of going straight back. There are certain areas where the stock pieces just wont work for me. When this is the case, instead of slapping a new high performance part in there I'll either beef up the original or use something similar that's stronger. A few exceptions to this rule are the fuel, ignition, and electrical systems. For these I'll be using all brand new & modern equipment for safety & reliability. The interior will be gutted. No creature comforts for me. Strickly business but cleanly done w/ a custom dash, appropriate gauges, racing seats, 5pt harnesses, etc.
As of today 9/5/05 the car sits in our garage in Indiana. Actually the house we bought is about a mile away from the previous owner of the car. Now that I'm living @ that house & going to school @ IUS I'll have more time to work on the car. We're still in the process of moving & there's not much room. Next spring (as soon as we sell our KY house) we'll brake ground on a much needed workshop. It'll be huge and have all the tools needed to work on this project & others.
Pics & updates will follow
Rob
About a month or so after my 15th birthday I saw an ad in the newspaper that had a 1970 1800E for sale in southern Indiana for $9000. The car was WAY out of my price range but we were curious. We drove up there on a Sat. morning, talked w/ the seller, and learned a little more about the car. We learned that he also had a parts car ('71 1800) that came w/ the '70. After a little persuasion we decided to buy the cars. The '70 for my father to drive & the '71 for me to tool around w/. Over the next year I spent all my time tearing apart the '71 teaching myself along the way.
The '70 was driven a little but mostly neglected because my father didn't have the time or space to fix what it needed to make it road worthy. After showing so much interest in working on the '71 my father decided to give me the '70 for my 16th birthday. I spent the next 6th months or so rebuilding the brakes, tweaking a few things, and learning to drive a stick (taught my self :). ). I drove it for about a year when I bought my 1st car (w/ my own money) which was the 245t. I decided to give the 1800 a rest and drove the 245.
After driving the turbo I "caught the bug". I wanted more power & performance out of my 1800. Afterall, it looked like a Ferarri, shouldn't it perform like one? Doing some research I found little on the topic of vintage Volvo performance. I found a few comanies, however, that specialized in developing aftermarket parts for my car. One of these companies (Vintage Performance Developments) mentioned the development of a supercharger kit for the b20. This kit would enable the engine to make a reliable 200+ crank HP. A feat only previously accomplished by the best hardcore Volvo racers using super high CR & race gas.
The hampster wheel in my head started turning as I was visioning one of the fastest streetable Volvo's ever. An idea was born that became known as Super1800gtr. Supercharged Volvo 1800. The GTR is a little ricy thanks to everyone who puts a gtr sticker on their civic. It does come from the Nissan Skyline GTR.
Every project car has a theme, wether it's a ricy civiv or integra, or a full blown pro street muscle car. The idea for my car was a street "legal" race car. If Volvo got together with another company to develope the ultamite 1800. Similar to some special edition, limited run cars such as the Skyline 400R. My car won't be limited to a bunch of bolt on accessories, however. The idea is to make the car perform as well as it looks. I'm taking after the Challenger in the movie The Vanishing Point using similar wheels and keeping w/ the original white. As I said above... I allways liked old MOPARs.
Obviously I plan on keeping the stock lines and geometry of the car intact. I'll be using the original engine and the majority of the suspension components. The exterior will be slightly modified inorder to fit wider wheels & tires and a few things will need to be done to revert it back to the old style w/o the marker lights and the crome strip that curves up @ the door instead of going straight back. There are certain areas where the stock pieces just wont work for me. When this is the case, instead of slapping a new high performance part in there I'll either beef up the original or use something similar that's stronger. A few exceptions to this rule are the fuel, ignition, and electrical systems. For these I'll be using all brand new & modern equipment for safety & reliability. The interior will be gutted. No creature comforts for me. Strickly business but cleanly done w/ a custom dash, appropriate gauges, racing seats, 5pt harnesses, etc.
As of today 9/5/05 the car sits in our garage in Indiana. Actually the house we bought is about a mile away from the previous owner of the car. Now that I'm living @ that house & going to school @ IUS I'll have more time to work on the car. We're still in the process of moving & there's not much room. Next spring (as soon as we sell our KY house) we'll brake ground on a much needed workshop. It'll be huge and have all the tools needed to work on this project & others.
Pics & updates will follow
Rob