This last weekend was Irene’s first trip to the local drag strip since the new engine has been together. Its been 3 years since I have been out to the track. That was far to long away from the scene.

The drag strip is always a fun place to go. There is always huge number of cars, I mean hundreds of cars. Compare that to the road course where there are 10-20 cars on a track day. The drag strip is just great fun for car nuts. You get to chat with people in the staging lanes, check out their cars, and check out the people too. The people are some of the most colorful you find anywhere. Many of them have a particularly reddish shade at the base of their skulls. Others have bright colored leather suits. Some don’t have much clothing at all. It was good fun just being there.

But of course, that wasn’t the point of the trip. I went to get some hard data on Irene’s performance capabilities in a straight line speed contest. After getting the car through a tech inspection, barely, I headed straight for the staging lanes. There lines were short early in the day. So I was able to put hte car in neutral, and roll down the hill straight to the front of the line. I had not drag raced for a few years, and was feeling very nervous and uncomfortable here. Before you line up on the starting line, you park your back tires in a watery area 100 feet or so from the start line for a burnout. The friction from the tires spinning on the ground puts some heat into the rubber which improves their traction. This can be a little bit tricky with a stick shift car, and my first attempt was a doozy. I dropped the clutch and nailed the gas pedal at the same time. I had the engine bouncing off the rev limiter pretty good, and the tires rotating pretty quickly. I was so occupied with keeping the tires spinning that I didn’t realize that I was moving pretty quickly down the racetrack, and passed the start line. That is a rookie maneuver if there ever was one. The track official yelled at me, “Hey, back it up!”

I backed the car up behind the line, and then eased into the staging lights. I then revved the engine to 3500rpm and held it there waiting for the christmas tree to begin blinking the start sequence. When the green light came on, I dropped the clutch hard. That nearly killed the engine; the motor bogged pretty badly, but then a split second later with my right foot firmly planted on the floor the miracle of turbocharging finally happened. The boost surge came on strong and I was off! Well, sort of. The tires started spinning again and the engine hit the rev limiter. I reached for the shifter, smashed the clutch, and pulled back hard to find second gear. No problem. I was on my way again, just a couple more shifts and I was through the finishing lights. Its funny how things that were once really easy somehow seem to slip from your memory and training. That was a down right sloppy run down the track. When the nice girly in the tower gave me the time slip, I was a little bit disappointed. But it was a good start. My time was 13.90@107mph. I really needed to drive better than that next time. The car is capable of way better than that.

A couple more runs, and the best I was able to do was 13.74@107mph. Some say thats respectable for a 4 cyilnder Volvo station wagon, and a good start to the year. Next time out, I’ll be gunning for the 12s. From what I learned this week, I think its easily within reach.

Irene is looking a little awkward with fat drag rubber on the back.

  Porsche’s drag race too.

  Side view

Name: Ken Lanham

Place: Broomfield, CO

Car: 1988 Volvo 740 Turbo Wagon

Engine:

• 1984 B23FT block
• Crankshaft offset ground to 89mm stroke
• Eagle h- beam rods for a Mitsubishi 4G63 were used
• Diamond Racing custom made forged pistons for 9:1 comp.
• Penta 16v cylinder head with a little port and polish.
• Penta pz cams
• Self made custom exhaust header
• Garrett Ballistic GT3076 from RK Autotechnik
• Home built custom 3″ stainless exhaust
• MSnS-extra, with wasted spark EDIS ignition, boost control and idle control

Driveline:

• Getrag 265 5 speed with adapter from the original Turbobricks group buy.
• Spec 6 puck disk
• Spec pressure plate
• Lightened flywheel

Chassis and Suspension:

• IPD springs
• Koni Yellows
• Poly bushings up front.
• home style scmber adjustment
• Cherry Turbos chassis bracing.

Tires and Wheels

• C70 wheels 17×7.5
• 225/45/17 Hankook RS2.

Brakes:

• Avalanche Performance Wilwood Superlite 4 piston front brake kit

Interior and Exterior

• European headlights and turn signals.
• Lots of gauges.
• Not much for audio or stuff that adds weight.
• Schroth 4 point harness
• Sparco Pedals
• Factory leather interior.

I became initiated into the Volvo family at a young age. My dad has worked in sales with Volvo since 1973. As a kid growing up, I spent alot of time riding around in the back seat of my dad’s Volvo demo cars. My toy cars at home were those 1/20th scale models that you can buy at the dealership. And my Luke Skywalker action figures split his driving time between a Land Speeder and a Volvo 240. So, naturally, I was pretty convinced at a young age that Volvos were the coolest cars on the road. How funny is that. My first car when I turned 16 in 1987 was a Volvo 240. My second car was a Volvo 264 with a small block Chevy and a nitrous bottle. I then owned 7 or 8 other relatively stock daily driver Volvos and several other brand performance cars between my first and current Volvo. Some memorable highlights were a twin turbo mustang with 600hp, a small block chevy powered Porsche 914, and a C4 Corvette that really hooked me on road racing.

When I started building this wagon, I really wanted to build it with as many Volvo parts as possible. Somehow I wanted it to be respectful of the Volvo make but still make the kind of horsepower I was used to in the American muscle cars I had owned. In true Turbobricks style, I was pretty pretty low on cash flow when I started the project. But I had a pretty clear vision of where I wanted to go, and some experience doing several projects of this scale in the past. I was just going to have to be patient and do it little by little and do most of the fabrication and labor myself.

The car was going to end up with alot of power and also handling and braking to match. I wanted something of a 90s Volvo BTCC for the street. I like to go have fun at the local road race courses on the weekends. And ultimately, if I can ever afford to do it, I want to enter the car in the Cannonball One Lap of America. I have this vision of a Volvo wagon being the perfect entry for this kind of event. Its my warped childhood again I’m sure. But in my mind, it would be a great entry. It is reasonably fast and fun to drive on a road race course. Its totally unique, and might get some decent press. And being a wagon, I could travel with a team of 3 and have room to sleep in the back on the road between the race track events. It would be such a great way to experience many of the great tracks around the country.

One of my favorite things to do is metal fabrication. On this car, I did all the fabrication and TIG welding on the stainless steel exhaust, the header, and also the aluminum intake piping. I have a few more ideas in the works. So I’ll be in the garage with the sparks flying. I find it really satisfying to make things with my own hands instead of just buying everything.