Autospeed article: pre-owned performance -Volvo 760 and 740 Turbos

A massive total of 650,443 Seven series Volvos were produced - and note that depending on the country of release, some of the following specifications may vary slightly.

Chassis

The 740's chassis is the traditional Volvo layout - front engine and rear wheel drive. Underneath the front wheel arches are MacPherson struts with an anti-roll bar, while the rear uses a live axle arrangement comprising, coil springs, telescopic dampers, trailing arms - another lot of arms - and an anti-roll bar. The braking system uses ventilated front discs and solid rears. When new, these could pull the car down from 100 km/h to standstill in 45 metres - Volvo brakes have always been a strong point of the marque. Its power assisted steering is delivered through a rack and pinion, which takes 3.5 turns from lock to lock. Handling of the car was described by contemporary road tests as competent but not inspiring, safe but not scintillating.

On the outside, the only distinguishing features of the turbo model are the driving light equipped front spoiler, turbo and intercooler badging, and 15 inch alloy wheels.

Inside the car it's all Volvo styling - which means it's very practical, upright and a little angular. Leather seats were an option on the slightly revised later cars, as well as a backward-facing seat (designed for children) placed in the luggage area. A driver's side airbag was also introduced around 1988. The grand total of all its components adds up to 1350-1400 kilograms. Cabin and cargo space - especially in the cavernous wagon - is generous.

Engine

Under the bonnet of the Volvo 740 turbo lies the faithful B230F longitudinal four cylinder. Its spec sheet includes a bore and stroke of 96.0 and 80.0mm (displacing 2316cc), an alloy SOHC head with a belt driven cam, a relatively high compression ratio of 8.7-9.0:1, and an intake system using a Garrett T3 turbo and an air-to-air intercooler (placed in front of the radiator). Engine management is conducted with a Bosch Motronic system using a hot-wire airflow meter.

All this gives a power output of 119kW at 5300 rpm, and a torque peak of 253Nm at only 2900 rpm. In some counties, the manual gearbox versions made approximately 5kW more. It's a quite flexible engine on the road, having peak torque at just over half the amount of revs at which it makes full power. The relatively high static compression ratio makes the engine very responsive even off-boost, helping to smooth the transition into boosted performance. The engine came with the choice of either a M46 5 speed manual gearbox or an AW71 4-speed auto.

Performance

Performance of the cars varied substantially across different contemporary road tests, being as fast as 8.7 seconds to 100 for an early manual 760 Turbo and as slow as 11 seconds for a later 740 Turbo automatic. Quarter mile times varied from 16.4 seconds to 17.6 seconds. Fuel consumption depends very much on how the car is driven - and it needs to be remembered that there's a relatively small turbo four cylinder doing the work in a large, un-aerodynamic car! Around 15 litres/100 km is typical, but the car does have an 82 litre tank.

Mods

The engine used in the large Volvos has the 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship under its belt with driver Robbie Francevic pedalling a 242 Turbo - it's a strong mill that can be developed to provide very substantial power. However, specialised knowledge of these engines won't be found at every turbo corner store - you should entrust performance work only to those who really know the engines. One of the best resources on performance modifications to any turbo Volvo can be found at www.turbobricks.org/ "> www.turbobricks.org/ The photo of the smoking Volvo is reproduced from their site - it gives you an idea of what to expect!

Given the engine's relatively high 9.0:1 compression ratio, we'd recommend that when you start winding up the boost you make sure your fuel octane is sufficient to avoid detonation. (Also note that in Australia, leaded fuel has dropped in octane since these cars were released.) As a result we'd advise running premium unleaded fuel all the time and/or adding a bottle of octane booster to every tank. Assembled with a fairly soft, luxury car type of suspension, we'd also suggest fitting an aftermarket set of springs and dampers to sharpen handling. Note that early 760's in Australia had firmer suspension than later cars.

Buyers' Guide

The Volvo is a safe and very solid car. Its reliability is what you'd expect from one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial and marine engines. It isn't uncommon for a B23F engine to last well over 400,000(!) kilometres, so long as it has been regularly serviced and has had good quality oil changes. One problem worthy of paying attention to though, is a worn auto trans, which depending on the cause of the problem, can be quite expensive to fix.

The Volvos can now be picked up for a fraction of their new price. Back in 1989 these cars were listed at around A$70,000. Today, an early model one cost about A$13,000, while the last of the model run fetch up to A$20,000.

Performance of Intended Role

Safe and decently quick in manual form, the Volvo mixes practicality with staid looks and excellent durability. The wagon - especially - is ideally suited to someone with the need for space but who wants to stay away from Australian Holden and Fords. We'd suggest that a well-maintained, relatively low kilometre car would be an excellent buy.

autospeed.com/cms/A_111385/article.html

<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="39" height="44" style="border: 1px solid #666666; background: #f9f9f9 none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; margin-right: 6px"><tbody><tr><td style="width: 100%; color: #666666; font-size: 10px"> </td></tr><tr><td align="center" style="text-align: center"> </td></tr><tr><td style="width: 100%; color: #666666; font-size: 10px; text-align: right">
</td></tr></tbody></table>