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Freiburger on the V8 (swapped) Volvo

DET17

Reformed SAABaholic
Joined
Nov 1, 2009
Location
NW Georgia
After decades of reading HOTROD, finally a discussion about Volvos.

Check out David Freiburger's Finish Line column entitled "V8 Anything" in the May HOTROD magazine. The last thing I expected.... a picture of a group of V8 Volvo wagons.

He says "I have a resounding lack of desire to LS-swap a Volvo, but can't deny that the practice is pure hot rodding".

He also says "Instead, the new wave is engine-swapping cars that the mainstream would never consider. BMW and Volvos are chief among them. Really."

edit - originally posted in OT, but perhaps it belongs here. RWC found that HR last mentioned Volvo (on the cover) in 1964........

We can't be far away from an actual article with a LS swapped RWD Volvo. :roll:
 
After decades of reading HOTROD, finally a discussion about Volvos.

Check out David Freiburger's Finish Line column entitled "V8 Anything" in the May HOTROD magazine. The last thing I expected.... a picture of a group of V8 Volvo wagons.

He says "I have a resounding lack of desire to LS-swap a Volvo, but can't deny that the practice is pure hot rodding".

He also says "Instead, the new wave is engine-swapping cars that the mainstream would never consider. BMW and Volvos are chief among them. Really."

edit - originally posted in OT, but perhaps it belongs here. RWC found that HR last mentioned Volvo (on the cover) in 1964........

We can't be far away from an actual article with a LS swapped RWD Volvo. :roll:

There's a somewhat in depth article on the swap inside.

Fakey edit;

Probably does belong in OT since it's idle chatter.
 
There should be an article in the next issue of ROADKILL magazine. As 77volvo245 and I were I interviewed about our LS swapped wagons.
 
There should be an article in the next issue of ROADKILL magazine. As 77volvo245 and I were I interviewed about our LS swapped wagons.

So those were your wagons shown in the HR column? Cool..... Freiburger only said it was at an undisclosed event.
 
I like watching Roadkill on Youtube. That twin-engine 500 Cadillac El Dorado was pretty amusing.

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After decades of reading HOTROD, finally a discussion about Volvos.

Check out David Freiburger's Finish Line column entitled "V8 Anything" in the May HOTROD magazine. The last thing I expected.... a picture of a group of V8 Volvo wagons.

He says "I have a resounding lack of desire to LS-swap a Volvo, but can't deny that the practice is pure hot rodding".

He also says "Instead, the new wave is engine-swapping cars that the mainstream would never consider. BMW and Volvos are chief among them. Really."

edit - originally posted in OT, but perhaps it belongs here. RWC found that HR last mentioned Volvo (on the cover) in 1964........

We can't be far away from an actual article with a LS swapped RWD Volvo. :roll:

The author obviously doesn't know that Volvos have been candidates for V8 swaps for over 20 years. Jags that Run and Converse Engineering did them before many owner on this board where even born!
 
The author obviously doesn't know that Volvos have been candidates for V8 swaps for over 20 years. Jags that Run and Converse Engineering did them before many owner on this board where even born!

We'll see how many years it is before HOTROD runs an LS converted Volvo article........:roll:

When you read the column, Freiburger laments that the 2 door muscle car material has all but disappeared or rusted shells fetching 5 digits. Today's young budding hotrodders have little choice but to V8 something else for their thrills. There historically has been little to no "import content" in HOTROD.... but I think that is changing. They ran a blasphemous article about a 69 Camaro with a TOYOTA engine swap about 10 years ago, and I think the editor got canned as a result :rofl:
 
The author obviously doesn't know that...

Anyone who's followed Freiburger for any length of time realizes there's a whole lot that he doesn't know.

CarCraft ran this about 3 years ago shortly before its demise and shortly before I pulled the 5.0 and replaced with LS.

 
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I like people being unaware of rwd volvos. Do we really want prices driven up by these cars becoming popular?
I doubt it will drive up prices. The people who haven't decided on a Volvo are usually looking for
a. cheap and available, which the volvo might be, or
b. popular, which the Volvo is not.
A distant c. is someone looking for the "best platform" for a certain engine.

yeah, Hot Rod has their niche, we are not in it, so any mention of Volvo at all is a good thing....
True.
 
Anyone who's followed Freiburger for any length of time realizes there's a whole lot that he doesn't know.

He knows a lot about the areas that he enjoys. Jeeps and muscle cars especially mopar. Outside of that he doesn't really care or have the time.


He says "I have a resounding lack of desire to LS-swap a Volvo, but can't deny that the practice is pure hot rodding".

He said his wife had a volvo wagon years back and he hated the thing. Didn't say the model but yeah he says he doesn't even own metric tools and has no interest in it. He likes what he likes and lets other people do their thing. More volvos for the rest of us.
 
I saw that too. I built a 5.0 & T-5 244 last year for autocross (doing quite well at the track actually) that was such a blast to build I'm starting a second 5.0 & AOD build now as a cruiser.

I know everyone is LS-everything now, but I like that the 5.0 is easily converted to carb (what I did). Makes an easy swap even easier. I have exactly 2 wires and zero sensors needed to run it - ignition and start. I can rebuild anything on it myself.

I've built/hot rodded lots of cars over the years, but did the Volvo for exactly the reason mentioned above - the typical old cars that people used to hot rod are now really expensive, or need everything. Usually both. Plus lots of rust. $10k buys a junker or a deeply uncool grandma car.

The '89 240 was a dream to work on compared to the usual 60's junk I play with. No rust, all the bolts zipped right out. Simple and logical in an American car way, but much higher quality.

It draws a crowd at every autocross event and people love it. No one has ever heard of a V8 Volvo, much less seen one whip up on a BMW M3.
 
I like people being unaware of rwd volvos. Do we really want prices driven up by these cars becoming popular?

:uh:

I for one welcome the day when the cars and parts are worth something more than a little bit of nothing and they move into better hands.

Oh wait they're already 25 years old and classics...
 
I actually KNOW David F. and he knows me by name - we share a friendship with Keith Turk who is his LSR racing partner. David is a sharp guy but he has his own likes and dislikes - like the rest of us. I'm loving the Volvo 245/SBF I'm building for a friend and David probably wouldn't. I get to love it and he doesn't have to, that's the way of the world. For him it was kind of a big deal giving Volvo (and BMW) folks the ink he gave us as it shows an openness that was a bit of a stretch for him.

Dan
 
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