83glt
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2005
INTRODUCTION
I’ve finally gotten around to starting a build thread for my recent acquisition. There is a long history behind this car, so that’s where I’ll start. Most of the historical information presented here has been sourced through various folks familiar with the car’s history and ownership. Special thanks to Ian from High Performance Auto, Mitch Duncan, Daniel Johnston, Dave Burnham, and several others who I hope to acknowledge as the build goes forward.
Because I’ve already owned the car for almost 5 months, I’m playing a bit of catch up here. So I apologize for the lengthy first post.
Here's how the car looked once upon a time:
THE HISTORY
Back in the early 1970s, this car was imported from Sweden to Torrance, CA where Volvo had located their North American Competition Service Parts Division. There are only about 4 of these Express cars known to have made it to North America. About 4000 or so were built and most saw service in Europe as ambulances and working vehicles as it was meant to supplant the Duett. Initially this car was used as it was intended – as a parts runner to local dealers. But at some point, Wayne Baldwin, who more or less ran the racing parts department, decided to turn this Express into a monster of a car. Wayne would go on to become a very successful rally driver for Volvo and was highly regarded for his mechanical skills – at one point building an entire 242 Turbo himself with parts off the shelf! Ultimately Wayne turned the Express into a rolling show room for Competition Service complete with just about every performance part they could throw at it. Full rally suspension, Stage IV rally engine, complete custom interior, custom wheels, rally gauge cluster, GT steering wheel, oil cooler, high capacity fuel pump, special gear box, roll cage, a shower in the back – apparently to hose down the dusty rally drivers, and much, much more.
I’ve finally gotten around to starting a build thread for my recent acquisition. There is a long history behind this car, so that’s where I’ll start. Most of the historical information presented here has been sourced through various folks familiar with the car’s history and ownership. Special thanks to Ian from High Performance Auto, Mitch Duncan, Daniel Johnston, Dave Burnham, and several others who I hope to acknowledge as the build goes forward.
Because I’ve already owned the car for almost 5 months, I’m playing a bit of catch up here. So I apologize for the lengthy first post.
Here's how the car looked once upon a time:
THE HISTORY
Back in the early 1970s, this car was imported from Sweden to Torrance, CA where Volvo had located their North American Competition Service Parts Division. There are only about 4 of these Express cars known to have made it to North America. About 4000 or so were built and most saw service in Europe as ambulances and working vehicles as it was meant to supplant the Duett. Initially this car was used as it was intended – as a parts runner to local dealers. But at some point, Wayne Baldwin, who more or less ran the racing parts department, decided to turn this Express into a monster of a car. Wayne would go on to become a very successful rally driver for Volvo and was highly regarded for his mechanical skills – at one point building an entire 242 Turbo himself with parts off the shelf! Ultimately Wayne turned the Express into a rolling show room for Competition Service complete with just about every performance part they could throw at it. Full rally suspension, Stage IV rally engine, complete custom interior, custom wheels, rally gauge cluster, GT steering wheel, oil cooler, high capacity fuel pump, special gear box, roll cage, a shower in the back – apparently to hose down the dusty rally drivers, and much, much more.
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