Ownership Verified: 1998 Volvo S70 T5: He who keeps buying Volvos...

So as it turns out...my car is not as rare as I thought. There are at least another 4-5 in the US.
 
4-5 in the whole of the US is still pretty rare
 
I am thinking about getting an ARD White tune. Who couldn't use an extra 25whp...

It will only cost me around $200 and I don't have to make any other modifications to the car.
 
Well, if it's going to be bonkers, it might as well be bat-shit bonkers!!!

I think I may wait till Spring. Money is not an issue. It's just that I've only had the car for one month. I think I know everything about it's mechanical condition, but there are always surprises.

Plus, it's already fast enough that they can take my license within seconds.

And if I do put more power in it, I will have to sign-up for lifetime axle replacements and alignments :p
 
I think the T5 is FWD lol.
 
Indeed FWD ;)

And the previous owner confirmed my suspicions that the car doesn't have traction control. The dealership screwed up when they rebuilt the module.
 
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Poor photoshop of what I'm thinking about doing. Putting a Volvo 960 front lip. Yay or nay?

http://img6.imageshack.**/img6/2882/lipdj.jpg
 
We had another Volvo gathering today, and some really cool vehicles showed up. I'll post pictures once I get them from everyone (I'm expecting some rolling shots as well).

On the way back, a few of us took a very exciting backroad through a canyon. Gorgeous scenery, twisty roads, and no..."official enforcement". I have to admit, the S70 is struggling to keep up with the S60R's in the corners. On the straight bits I can keep up just fine (wheelspin in 1st gear at 25mph...fuck yeah!), but I have too much body roll in the corners. And this is with 1" lowering springs and Bilstein HD shocks. In addition - tight turns, some gravel and small stones on the road...I didn't want to push too hard.
Still had a lot of fun though!

Especially on today's drive I failed to see where RWD would have helped. In those twisty mountain roads good front end grip was the most important thing. I can however, see how less weight and stiffer suspension would have been better.
 
A RWD layout probably would have eliminated the 25mph wheelspin. It may have also allowed for more front end grip. (depending on suspention layout/etc.)

Just sayin'. :p
 
A RWD layout probably would have eliminated the 25mph wheelspin. It may have also allowed for more front end grip. (depending on suspention layout/etc.)

Just sayin'. :p

It would have just transferred the wheelspin to the rear wheels :lol:

As far as more front end grip - how does RWD help when you are not on the throttle? When applying throttle I can see how it would help, but in tight turns I brake before the corner, put it in 2nd, no throttle or brakes mid-corner, finally apply throttle at the end. A mid-engine layout would certainly help...
 
If you take tight turns at a high level of speed a RWD car won't try and kill you like a FWD one will. You also have much more control of a RWD car with spinning tires than a FWD one.
 
If you take tight turns at a high level of speed a RWD car won't try and kill you like a FWD one will. You also have much more control of a RWD car with spinning tires than a FWD one.

Nonsense. If I'm not applying power, the car basically becomes a rolling object with inertia being pulled by centrifugal forces. It's a question of grip and mass.
 
If you aren't applying power it doesn't matter if the car is front wheel drive or side wheel drive. When applying power it becomes an issue when the front wheels try to steer and drive at the same time. Even a properly done FWD with equal length half shafts car have this issue.
 
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Agreed.

On the types of roads I drive here I can't afford to apply throttle mid corner. Roads are narrow, have debris on them, rocks on one side and a cliff on the other. Even if I had RWD, I wouldn't dare kicking the ass out.
 
Nonsense. If I'm not applying power, the car basically becomes a rolling object with inertia being pulled by centrifugal forces. It's a question of grip and mass.

Weight transfer and drive wheel braking applies then too, so no.
 
If you aren't applying power it doesn't matter if the car is front wheel drive or side wheel drive. When applying power it becomes an issue when the front wheels try to steer and drive at the same time. Even a properly done FWD with equal length half shafts car have this issue.

But RWD packaging might allow more better not only better weight distribution and location of COG, but put all the heavy bits between the axles.

HighVoltage:

When coasting neutral it doesn't matter if your car is FWD or RWD, it can still oversteer or understeer. This mainly depends on the COG and also on the design of the suspension. Of course fine tuning with alignment can always affect, but engine-in-front-of-front-axle Audi will always understeer on the limit without throttle and Porsche 911 will always oversteer. If you get the balance just right, the car will be pretty neutral meaning it's extremely easy (and satisfying) to alter the balance with throttle and brake. This also means you're using the grip of both front and rear axle to the max. While this is possible in FWD setup, it rarely happens (DC2 Integra Type R is one and there are much more, none of them are four door saloons), but with RWD you can make a landyacht like XJR or M5, ordinary saloon like 316i or something like MX5 achieve the same thing. Of course tiny car with short wheelbase like MX5 is going to react much quicker and feel more playful, but the cars basic reactions on the limit should be pretty much the same. The point of this is, with RWD it's possible to use the grip of both axles to the max, while in FWD you're understeering without power (or engine braking) because of having COG way close to front axle and in addition to that you get power-on understeer. So while front is already pushing wide the rear tires are barely doing any work. There's grip left, unused.

So in a relatively big performance-driven sedan FWD is in a huge disadvantage when compared to RWD on a dry road. It's not about having mid-corner powerslides, it's just about using the grip of all tyres to the max. You do get more space and it's cheaper to build, so it's not inferior, it's just good at different things than RWD.
 
I'm back. No, I have not torque-steered into a tree :) I've just been really busy with work.

Car update: everything is still working just fine, except for a nagging whining noise on cold starts. It only lasts for a minute and is not RPM sensitive. After a minute it just cuts off. It is not the air pump. I doubt it's a belt - like I said, revs don't affect the pitch of the whine, and they've all been replaced in the past 15k miles. Two possible culprits are the power steering pump (although I have no reason to suspect it), and the oil thermostat for the oil cooler. A lot of Volvo-people point to the oil thermostat, but also say that it's not crucial. Some drive like that for years. I guess we'll see. If it gets worse, I'll take it to the shop.

The car is still a joy to drive. Here are a few rolling shots we took last month:

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