Volvo 480T goes Touring Car Racing

[jamesalx]

Hi All,

I'm currently trying to build my Volvo 480T to take it Classic Touring Car Racing, I'm chronicling the build on my blog http://www.jamsalx.com/category/racing/. Any help, ideas and suggestions would be gratefully received.

Want to give them non-Volvo's a run for there money

Thanks,

James

[Captain Slow]

Any help, ideas and suggestions would be gratefully received.

I cant do any of those things, but I can wish you luck and hope to see it on the racetrack some day

[glasgowjim]

With a rich mod fitted you can get 148mph from the standard 480 turbo. You may as well remove the head lamps and smooth them over because when up they reduce your top speed by about 10 mph.

Lower the suspension but no more than 40mm it will improve handling and fit a strut brace as well if you are going whole hog.

The first vital question is do you still want to make it road legal ?

That then decides the route you can take.

There is also the super rich mod which is very rare and the Robou mod which is mellower than the rich mod which is no longer in production

[glasgowjim]

Do a search on 480 volvo racing , I seem to remember a swedish member had links to his extensive adapted racing 480

[jamesalx]

Thanks CaptinSlow, I'll keep you guys posted on the progress.

GlasgowJim, I'm already in the process of building a MegaSquirt II Extra, so it's going to have sequential fuel and spark, and boost control, which will help a lot. I'm about to put up a post on the suspension going to do a lot of work on it, new adjustable dampers, harden springs, custom strut bracing and custom wish bones at the front, as for the rear, pretty much a total rebuild. As for road legal, I gave up on that when I got quotes for car insurance, but if I can I'll keep it legal just in case I want to stump up the cash to go and humiliate some townies

[glasgowjim]

"roast some townies "

good for you

When I borrowed my son's debadged 480 turbo with Robou's mod it was great roasting the boy racers at the lights , They look across at the "old guy" and think he's a boring old fart especially if you are wearing a hat then they eat my dust

some things in life are priceless !

Oh the simple pleasures of watching a boy racer cry

[chriskay]

Yes, Jim, I loved doing just that when I had my 850T5 with 280 BHP.

[Alan 480]

I know this is off topic but in similar vein to Glasgow Jim.

try out-dragging ford Crapi Ghias at the lights with a Reliant Robin Van !!!! (stripped out not for racing just nothing inside it, well actually it had only one seat and NO trim as it was a 'work-in-progress' )

by the third set of lights they were really trying!!
Ok so the rev limiter was kicking in (AKA valve bounce) in second but that was all it was needed

I guess if you bin ALL the interior, front lights&lifts, leccy window system/sun roof you will shave 100+kg

If you still need to keep front head-lights have a look at the SCIMITARWEB site where some of the lads have fitted 'bike-lights' and faired them in mind you just remove the 'driving lights' and fit the bike lights there instead?

[Van]

"roast some townies "

good for you

When I borrowed my son's debadged 480 turbo with Robou's mod it was great roasting the boy racers at the lights , They look across at the "old guy" and think he's a boring old fart especially if you are wearing a hat : then they eat my dust
some things in life are priceless !

Oh the simple pleasures of watching a boy racer cry

This is also off-topic but my then 80-years old friend told me he had borrowed his Volvo to his son and had to drive his son's older VW Polo. This was a beefed up but plain looking Polo with a much bigger engine and even when he's a very restrained driver, he told me how he would beat the young guys who thought exactly the same as Jim wrote.

[Ettore Bugatti]

Nice blog and a cool project.

Suspension wise you could opt for 40mm lowering springs, however you can go for coilovers made by Leda. Protech is also open for custom work.

Enginewise you could hunt down a 1.6 (B16F) from a Volvo 440/460 to get in the desired engine class. The stock T2 ran out of power around 190-200hp.
For racing I would seriously consider a Renault F4R or F7R they can go to 230hp N/A and they are a lot less hassle to run compared to a fully tuned B18FT.

Otherwise a B20F build to Formula Renault specs should be able to squeeze 170hp, not sure that would be competitive. I remember that a Vento VR6 is the fastest fwd car in that racing series. A 480 should be able to go faster through the corner.

Search for a bit for Gruppe A on here and you 'll find two nice car a white Belgium car and a red German one.