My Volvo 854 T5-R 591 hp project

I also kept busy when I fancied a change of jobs on the car and fitted the fuel tank and the new loom for the fuel pumps/speedo/fuel gauge




I was so pleased with how all the freshly repainted parts looked that I decided to buy all new trims/mouldings, rear glass etc etc etc. This cost a huge amount as Volvo trim items are not the cheapest to buy !!!!












With a bit of help we finally managed to fit the 850R rear spoiler





On went the wiring loom for the engine

The late nights continued for three months - I worked a full day at RT then stayed until late into the night every night as I had to get the car up and running as soon as possible - it started to pay off as it was nearly time to start the car??..

The last time I ran the car, I had one problem - the top rad hose ran so close to the boost hose and the pass return line that it snapped the line clean off the pump, so I had to make a change to stop this from happening again?..



TYRES

I managed to borrow an unused Dunlop D01J from a great friend?..



I wanted to see if I could get away with running 235/40/18 but with the ride height I wanted, it was not going to be possible. The last thing I wanted to do was risk damaging the new wings so I needed get 225/40/18. I decided to use the excellent Dunlop D03J?s - I did not want to risk buying cheaper cut slicks like some you see.



THE PERIL IN MOTION AGAIN!

I was soon at the stage where I was ready to drive the Peril around our car park, just to get the wheels moving again under her own steam. This was a great moment for me but I still had lots to do ie, brake lights, reverse lights etc etc etc but it was great to drive again.

















HEADLIGHTS & FIRE EXTINGUISHER

After a few comments from customers that had had a chance to see the Peril several times during the re build (they thought the headlights I had bought did not suit the car) I decided to buy new standard lights from Mr Volvo:







I also bought a fire extinguisher to have to hand should the worst ever happen

THE FIRST DRIVE PART 2

It was a very exciting morning one Saturday when it was finally time to drive the car properly again after 9 long months. It was time to start to enjoy the car again and run the engine in for a few hundred miles at half a bar of boost. I wanted to do this as soon as possible so every night that week me and a lucky passenger went out for a good couple of hours each night with a varied course - we even popped into the Goodwood race track as its only down the road from work.



We continued to do more late night runs with no problems at all which was a great relief

I wondered how many trips I would be making to my favourite shell garage on the A3 at Liphook !!!





RE-MAPPING THE ECU

I travelled over to see Mark Shead my Autronic mapper and teacher who is slowly helping me learn how to map my own car. We started off doing a few runs to start to give the Peril some decent amounts of boost now that the engine was run in after the late night runs with half a bar of boost so out we went :






MAD?s unit was full of all very high hp cars as usual, most put the Peril?s hp in the shade with their power outputs including one very well known Sapphire Cosworth which runs at 2.9 BAR !!! and over 700 hp 






We started off with just the general driveability and throttle response of the car - a few people have asked how much of an animal a fwd Volvo with 535 hp is to drive - well I can honestly say that you can quite happily drive it as a normal car without any dramas in heavy traffic - the car is happy to trundle along with the flow of traffic - even the paddle clutch is not a pain at all - not quite the ?un driveable monster? a few ill informed people have said. If you use a good standalone ECU and THE BEST mapper you will have no such problems - of course you need to adapt your driving style but surely that?s common sense with the larger turbo?s. There is a large lever in the middle of the car called a gear stick - you can use it to great effect to help you 

We set the boost up to 2.3 bar as that?s where we got to last time. I was happy to go a bit further this time now that the liner problem was hopefully gone for good so we went up to 2.4 then 2.5 bar. I was happy to stay at this level as the performance at 2.5 bar is quite shocking. The Peril is like not other Volvos I have ever been in or probably will ever be in - I cannot wait to do a few performance tests on the car in the future.

We then set up the water injection and for now set this to cut in at a preset of inlet temp, so the SM4 handles all this side of the WI. When set up the SM4 can even control each WI jet individually - all very clever

LAUNCH CONTROL

While we were out we set up the launch control which works very well. All you do is come to a stop, turn on the switch then hold the throttle flat out - the SM4 takes control and holds the revs at 4.5 k - all you do then is lift the clutch?.. easy?

ANTI LAG

Then it was the turn of the anti lag which is just for a bit of fun - no performance gain at all just some fantastic noises ? There is nothing quite like a 5 cylinder Volvo popping and banging away 

Once we set up the traction control with a new chip for the SM4, I had to make a few practice starts for a future event?..

MORE FINISHING TOUCHES

I thought it was about time I put a heat shield around the silicon hose that comes from the compressor housing on the turbo as it runs rather close to the exhaust manifold!!!:



I even managed to get a carbon look remote control for my alarm which matches up with the dash

When all of the underside was stripped and repainted I had some extra plating made around the jacking points - this was starting to get marked again so I had bought some checker plate and cut it to shape,,,,,



I had a nice surprise when I went down to Beaulieu - in the museum there is a section on Volvo and a picture of a nice young looking Peril 



Finally, after many months of wanting to have The Peril weighed I had the chance



The wife has even started to take a few pics of the Peril



I even managed to get a picture of The Peril on the Top Gear cool wall ? it should have been further to the right if you ask me !!!






PREPARING FOR THE THE BRIGHTON SPEED TRIALS

I have had a date in mind to aim for completing the Peril 100% since last September when I made my yearly trip to the Brighton speed trials.

I thought this would be a great event to put the Peril into as I have been going for a few years and have never seen a Volvo enter.

I decided that I would not have time to call it the finished spec as the delays with the custom cams have cost me dear, so would run the car for the Brighton Speed Trails in its current form which is a long way off the final spec.

The Brighton and Hove Motor Club is a great club to be part of as they do several good events each year. I was a member a few years ago when I was doing the Porsche racing. You cannot just enter the speed trials you have to be invited, so many months ago I set about getting my invite. Back in June this year my invite came through and I sent off my details as quickly as I could as I did not want to miss it as the event is always over subscribed.

The pressure was now on to get the car ready as soon as possible so more late nights and weekends helped a lot.
The testing continued - I had decided on a evening run out with a few weeks to go before the Speed trials to a RS Owners club meeting which I used to attend when I had my Escort Cosworth. I have many friends there so thought they might like to see some thing a bit different!!!!!, Me and my great friend Mark (who has been a true friend helping me after hours and weekends for many many months without a complaint!!) set off to Staines Rugby Club for the evening. As we came off the main road down to a round about I slowed in the traffic and went down to first gear. I pulled away and the gearbox made a very strange noise (like I now had straight cut gears!!) I changed to second and the noise was the same !! 3rd 4th and 5th were fine !!

GEAR BOX ISSUES

I had wondered how long the standard gearbox would last even though I have seen many internet guessing games say they are fine for a 5-600 hp car. Maybe I was unlucky, so time would tell. I drove the car home without a problem just a noise in 1st and 2nd still.

I thought the only route I could take was to use a brand new exchange box from Volvo so took a deep breath and ordered one!! The new gearbox was sent to our gearbox company and the gripper diff was swopped over into the new unit, this in its self was not straight forward as the new Volvo gearbox was not without a problem! The gearbox company called me to tell me the roll pins in the lay shaft were not there!!!! If the box had been fitted to the car as it arrived it would not go into gear! This problem was easily sorted but annoying - even brand new parts can be faulty.

The clock was now ticking as the speed trials was only two weeks away so I had very little time to get the engine/box back into the car and run up and tested so the late nights started again.


WHEEL REFURBISHMENT & FRONT SPLITTER

I had always wanted the wheels in anthracite to finish off the look of the car so had this done ready for the speed trials. I also finally added my carbon fibre front splitter which I had been looking forward to adding to the car.




THE BRIGHTON SPEED TRIALS

The days before the speed trials went very quickly and the night before we put the numbers on the car ready for a very early start. I also had a small amount of sign writing done so people would know who the mad guy in the Volvo is. We set off for the speed trials at 6am sharp - thankfully the weather was fine and dry:




We set off for the run down to Brighton and soon arrived and set up camp






I was very proud to finally make it to the speed trials so with my virgin race suit/gloves and a borrowed crash helmet from a mate I was ready.




The other cars all started to arrive - such a wide range of cars, just about every year and make you could ask for?. and one very yellow Volvo!

I was very pleased with all the many nice comments made about the car ? it drew lots of attention all day long. I even had a very nice lady with very bright hair grab me and ask if I would be happy to do an interview for sky TV!! All very embarrassing and not me at all but I thought why not - the lady was very impressed and said it was her favourite car of the day and she has even booked a ride and another feature of the car :



The time came for my first practice run at about 10 am so I lined up. I thought I would try a run with the launch control on and the anti lag just for the great noise. Due to all the problems with the gearbox and thoughts of the clutch giving out in the days before the event I had no chance to practice at all so I lined up and off I went. The start was terrible and did a 15.8 !! Terrible but it was rather fun though and I put it down to experience, or lack of it in a racing situation under a lot of pressure!



I had not been told how many runs I would be getting but after chatting with my neighbours I found out I would only get one more run so thought I would try with no launch control (which I hadn?t had time to practice with) and just use the car as it was.. So off I went and lined up for the second time. This time the start went a lot better and I was happy with my 13.83 @ 114 mph - still a long way off the best time in the car from looking at other Volvos times but will never be able to beat a good friend in Sweden who runs a 10.64 @ 144 mph !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck to him with his next goal which is under 10 sec next year!

The day had been fantastic - I was hoping to have some more runs but for the class I was in, that was may limit. I had a great day and met some very nice fellow car lovers. I also had many customers come and support us which was very kind and lots of people came over and said what a nice neat job the car was, especially how under the bonnet looked which meant a lot to me after all the hard work.

I have found lots of pics people took on the day :



So far is my favourite :


At the end of the long day my brother Andy drove the Peril all the way back to RT head quarters - he rather enjoyed his first decent run in the car?!

MORE GEARBOX ISSUES !!!

I spent the next week doing my commute to and from work in the Peril which was great fun to help cheer up the other fellow commuters. Unfortunatley on the way into work the following week disaster struck !!! Coming onto the roundabout on the A3 I slowed for second gear and the gearbox once again made the horrible noise. I could not believe that the brand new box had only lasted 200 miles !!!!!!!

I recorded a small video of the noise if you?re feeling brave :


I luckily had a second hand gearbox which I had bought about three years ago and have popped that into the car for now while we do a full strip of the other box to finally find a cure for the failures ?..


This story is up to date so far I will have more to add and hopefully some performance times soon I hope you have enjoyed reading this half as much as i have enjoyed the challenge the project has set me and my great team of supporters and helpers....

I have had lots of help and support from the following people:

All at RT HQ have helped in a big way with the project :
My brother Andrew/Lucy/Derek/Mark S/
The 'Q' my great mate for all the help and long hours
Mark Shead of MA Developments
Rod T wiring etc
Andy (AndysR) and brother James
AP racing Brakes
Spec R alloy
Vehicle wiring products
Earls
Data spares (Dash etc)
Brighton and Hove motor club
Merlin Motorsport
Zircotec
Silicon hoses.com
Turbo Dynamics

And of course my long suffering wife Emma for the help and support with the ups and downs a project like this brings.

If you would like to build such a crazy volvo please contact us www.rtmechanics.co.uk

Russ

amazing write up, thanks so much for sharing

any chance we can get a sound clip from that monster?

You sir, did not neglect the slightest detail

very nice,


Marek

followed this on vs for a while, still love it, its great how you easily have a show quality car but arent afraid to drive it

marek said:

amazing write up, thanks so much for sharing

any chance we can get a sound clip from that monster?

You sir, did not neglect the slightest detail

Click to expand...

+1

jesus christ.
this is overwhelming.

such a good thread.

volvo lover said:

I had not been told how many runs I would be getting but after chatting with my neighbours I found out I would only get one more run so thought I would try with no launch control (which I hadn?t had time to practice with) and just use the car as it was.. So off I went and lined up for the second time. This time the start went a lot better and I was happy with my 13.83 @ 114 mph - still a long way off the best time in the car from looking at other Volvos times but will never be able to beat a good friend in Sweden who runs a 10.64 @ 144 mph !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck to him with his next goal which is under 10 sec next year!

Th

Click to expand...

If the car indeed has 591hp and weighs around 1500kg you shouldn't be way far off of your friend's times.

It should trap in the 120's for sure bad launches or not... something seems off?

I had a similarly crappy run - 13.4 @ 113, and I only dyno'd at 388. Probably similar weight too.

holy crap man, thats awsome.

hey man, do you have any wallpaper size pics of the finished car? I'd love a new background.

Marek said:

amazing write up, thanks so much for sharing

any chance we can get a sound clip from that monster?

You sir, did not neglect the slightest detail

very nice,

Marek

Click to expand...

Hi Marek

I am glad you enjoyed it thanks for the kind words i am working on the sound clips etc

stick70 said:

followed this on vs for a while, still love it, its great how you easily have a show quality car but arent afraid to drive it

Click to expand...

The thread is still going on VS thanks for the kind words its been a lot of work

scottyd said:

+1

Click to expand...

I wil see what i can do

norcal505 said:

jesus christ.
this is overwhelming.

Click to expand...

Thankyou

Jerd said:

such a good thread.

Click to expand...

Thanks

Captain Bondo said:

If the car indeed has 591hp and weighs around 1500kg you shouldn't be way far off of your friend's times.

It should trap in the 120's for sure bad launches or not... something seems off?

I had a similarly crappy run - 13.4 @ 113, and I only dyno'd at 388. Probably similar weight too.

Click to expand...

Hi Captain

The car currently has 468 hp as i try out different cam selections and a few other ideas while the gearbox's are being a pain its not too much of a worry i hope to cure the gearbox issues soon and be back up to full power with the better cams i have ready to fit at last.

I need some more practice but at this time of year over here the weather is crap i hope to be having another go soon,i dont have a hope of catching my friend.

Russ

supraboy said:

holy crap man, thats awsome.

Click to expand...

Thanks

norcal505 said:

hey man, do you have any wallpaper size pics of the finished car? I'd love a new background.

Click to expand...

I will pm you one if it helps

Russ

i think that is the only legitimate response that someone could give!! WOW!!

I don't know how I MISSED this build what a terrific job you have done with this car !! As stated before most people don't have clue what it takes to build a car of this caliber. What exactly did you paint the underside with?

Awesome build thread, lots of good photos and the work looks good quality too!

I think you made the right decision to change back to the OEM headlights... those after market ones make the car look like cheap garbage.

are you guys hiring

amazing build dude.

um.

AWE!!!

Well done, and from a fellow brit!

Most jealous.

One quick request.

I know it's a pain but please go back to the garage shot with all the modified sisters and blank some number plates, some of thos wont be registered modified. TY.

WOW!! hard luck on the run btw.

WOW! So much time and effort.