Volvo's Rule-Bending Cylinder Head

The Volvo 850 has to be one of the coolest BTCC cars ever, but Volvo used some pretty crafty tricks to give it a little advantage...
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Credits:
Thanks to Italiansupercar.net for the footage, check out his channel here: / @italiansupercarvideo

[@4G12]

Now THIS is race car engineering. It is the engineer's sworn duty to follow the letter of the rules while doing everything within the laws of physics to defy the spirit of it.

[@max.racing]

are you Doug de Muro? ^^ I heard his voice reading your text :D

[@davidsneddon6412]

100% agree with you on this one, pure determination to build a beast, shame that the estate never won a single race though

[@MichaelRoma91]

Well said. The engineers don’t get enough credit sometimes as to how they figured out how to work around the rules in ingenious ways.

[@tntfreddan3138]

That feeling when you're going down a straight in a Porsche but a literal brick on wheels flies past you, cuts the next corner perfectly and raises one wheel off the ground and he's gone after just two corners, just to be seen in the rear view mirror again after a few laps.

[@sonicstep]

What Porsche are you referring to?

[@splah01]

@@sonicstep from '94 ? Almost all of them 😂

[@KrissRacing]

can we just for a minute enjoy the fact that they used a frickin estate car in racing, like how often do you see that? (except for like banger racing and that stuff ofc)

[@benabdi]

Kriss subaru levorg for a few years now, in btcc as well

[@ThexMJT]

BTCC

[@PressurenFlames]

Honda used the Civic Tourer in BTCC (2014 I believe) and won with it.

[@shadowchrome_]

Kriss check out BTCC , most of the cars are like civic estates and subaru levorgs

[@hoolmgrenxd7151]

Only proper wagon i saw was the Toyotas and Subarus, is the Toyota fwd? Whatever the 850 will be the kind of the racing wagons in my opinion just because it's an 850 and well it explains itself right there

[@achmadfajar6845]

It's fair, because they're not breaking the rules...So before you go competitive, pls read the rules, find the grey area and exploit them

[@Powertampa]

Spoken like a true politician... or F1 team...

[@TropicielPablo]

Powertampa Ex-Lancia Rally Team waves with greetings :)

[@Random63R400]

A.k.a Adrian Newey

[@mrc7966]

achmad fajar Couldn't agree more. F1 and Nascars' finest hours have been when geniuses like. Gordon Murray bother to learn the rules and move the game along by thinking outside the box.

[@Konformation07]

@@mrc7966 I remember Jeff Gordon's T-Rex car

[@adamthompson4072]

It wasn't technically illegal, so it was perfectly fine. Smokey Yunick would've been proud

[@colinmunro7337]

Smokey would think what took you so long to figure it out😂

[@eyeballdude]

Awesome

[@eefneleman9564]

Haven't heard or read that name in a while.

[@jamesgeorge6551]

Yup.

[@970357ers]

They used their heads in this instance.

[@bogdancondicaru7848]

Blunt hits!😂🤣🤭

[@lycossurfer8851]

Actually they didn't use their heads, they used their block 😉

[@iuopunderstandyourjokes9914]

@@bogdancondicaru7848 ok

[@Sajuuk9]

I wish DTCC and BTCC where still like this, normal cars pimpt for racing.. those where the days.. seeing your own car race.. now they are all made of plastic and look like spaceships.

[@pykezuikkeli]

tell me how exactly they look like spaceships? to me they look like pimpt up normal cars of today. And no they are not made of plastic no more than the production models.

[@mattjohns3394]

Pykezuikkeli I don't know about BTCC but Australian Supercars (just a name, used to be called touring cars) are all standardised chassis with mostly carbon fibre panels. Standard panels don't even fit.

[@pykezuikkeli]

Yes those are different ball game, btcc cars are built from standard cars

[@mattjohns3394]

Pykezuikkeli Are? Or were? That was once the norm here too but "parity" and other complaints took over. BTCC now uses "Next Generation Touring Cars" rules. All sorts of things are standardised and are unfortunately no longer comparable to their road going origins.

[@pykezuikkeli]

www.btcc.net/about/technical-overview/ Are. Of course standardisation has happened on components used to keep the costs down but the cars are built to the original bodies and manuafacturers have the option to build their road going engines up to specs, for example the btcc avensis engine is built from the 3zr-fe used in avensis. And the cars are still mostly steel cars, not some kind of plastic spaceships. Just like they were in the 90's. If one thinks that the 90's volvos were just standard bricks with high horsepower and coilovers they'd need to look more into the cars.

[@jonesy-rh5fk]

What a genius idea. Well done Volvo

[@markdenyer8072]

Motor Man 11 you mean twr.

[@jonesy-rh5fk]

Mark Denyer true enough

[@kaygeebee]

Question is, what did Volvo learn and did they apply the lessons to future engines?

[@animealpha4795]

This is called lit af engineering.

[@ALAPINO]

Fair doesn't factor in here. Rules were abided and none were broken. They were just cleverer/first.

[@zeroswings2]

not 1st... Audi I think was 1st with the 2L engine in the A4

[@LeBoomStudios]

Exactly this. Everybody else could've done the same, so it's not unfair or breaking the rules.

[@leonardr6704]

I don't even care if it was smart or cheating. That sound is too good

[@EB-sr7sj]

I drive a 850 T5 Estate with over 400k km on it, and I love it. Still runs great!

[@shivaram.m6119]

Esra B its volvo what do you expect?

[@kellypaws]

That's the real point, they're great cars.

[@michaelwalker1119]

My mate had an 850. Not the T5 .lowered from factory and every option...

[@gcallananpainting]

Same with mine. I love driving it. Sounds nice too.

[@iamarawn]

Esra B I think it's about time you change the running in oil.

[@MrFastFox666]

Love these rule bending vids. Plz keep them coming

[@amfoy5919]

In all of these videos, my belief is that if they haven't broken the rules, that's fine. It's only rule bending if the rules aren't broken. If there's any genuine deception that has to occur for them to race, that is clearly unfair. If they can explain what they did to the race organising body and they're still allowed to race without a penalty, they're just being very clever and deserve praise for it.

[@simon0674]

I remember every man and his dog were laughing at Volvo for bringing an Estate to the BTCC in 94. However No one was laughing at the end of the season.

[@Samurai-sv2wz]

Simon I think Volvo made some doubters eat their words. The 850 estate was a fast car, it certainly gave the Vauxhall cavaliers something to think about.

[@fillefilander]

How can 260 bhp be 25hp below the competitors, but 325bhp is 65 horsepower more than the "other cars"?!

[@Jbones636]

Mattias Filander I was literally sitting here debating the same thing, and was hoping someone mentioned it in the comments. Thank you.

[@richardfitzwell6579]

Apparently he cant do math.

[@boostaddict_]

Mattias Filander Maybe more than the other 850s?

[@YeetxBoi]

65 more Hp than the production 850s

[@fillefilander]

@@YeetxBoi nope

[@davidsneddon6412]

That inline 5 sound is incredible!

[@stueypooy22]

They worked the grey area in the rules. It’s not like they did what Toyota did with the GT4 and it’s turbo

[@hondamanvtec2894]

Massive Unicorn Wang cheating is cheating

[@stueypooy22]

if someone beats you in a debate because your argument was full of holes, they haven’t cheated you, you just didn’t prepare properly. The same applies here, the rules were full of flaws that they used to their advantage

[@philmitchell9552]

I love the way alfa with the Alfa 155 threw a front splitter and rear spoiler jacking kit in the boot of a production model (Silverstone - formula) to be allowed to use it😂

[@haydenw8691]

Not cheating. After all, the rules didn't say they weren't allowed to do it.

[@haydenw8691]

Phil Mitchell even better, apparently GT cars at Le Mans in the 90s had to have space for a suitcase otherwise they were considered a prototype. Since the fuel tank was empty during scruitineering, Toyota said that the GT-One's fuel tank could theoretically hold a suitcase.....

[@BasEerdenKeuning]

Just Some smart ass carguys

[@akihiko4036]

1:52 that noise came from a Volvo... God I love 5 cylinders

[@RiccardoTheBeAst]

I live 30 minutes from that motordrome! :D (and yes that sound is..... jgashghasgashgeagbgvsjafeyg i fuckin' love it!)

[@ParFektion]

Legendary sound! 😍💪🇸🇪

[@fintonstack8353]

I remember going to the btcc when that volvo estate came out, remember thinking what drugs have they taken, it was bloody quick. Great days of the btcc and some great drivers.

[@suhdud4646]

As a child watching BTCC in the 90's, this is still my dream drive if given the oppotunity along with the Mazda 787.

[@Mish93Will]

Awesome content guys. Lots of touring car teams were doing funky things in this time, i heard Alfa actually turned their head around on the 155 to get the intake side facing towards the front of the car. But volvo had by far the most extreme engine and best sounding too along side the mondeo. The teams had some crazy budgets but it was still the best touring car racing era.

[@robc3056]

vauxhall turned the xe head 180 aswell

[@haydenw8691]

Volvo turned the whole motor instead of just the head from memory.

[@Prime.Era.]

My favourite touring car

[@mk3whitewide]

My first love at slammed wagon. Still drive one today, 25 years later. Not exactly a brick but slammed.

[@JackNatti]

As clarkson would say, BRILLIANT

[@bwickham195]

Rallying's non-turbo, 2WD 'F2' category had a similar issue around the turn of the century: The rules said the cylinder head had to start life as a production item. The idea was to keep costs down, but it meant teams - and Citroen above all others - spent tens of thousands (francs, pounds, dollars... pick your currency) modifying the production part, rather than just being able to fabricate a comparatively cheap fit-for-purpose head.

[@fontheking5]

Yes, at least the Peugeot 306 Maxi did rev to around 10 000 rpm to make all that power, since unlike Super Touring, the Rally F2 cars did not have mandanted revlimiter of 8500 rpm, so it was all green light to make your engines rev as high as you can, these cars sounded awesome, and the 4wd WRC teams complained that they got beaten on tarmac by cars that were perfectly designed for tarmac rallys, and weighed around 200 kgs less than the 4wd world rally cars 2. In 1999 Citroen won 2 rallys outright, Spain and Corsica, and after 1999, the f2 series was prety much gone, since both Hyundai and Peugeot moved on to the big WRC class, later followed by Citroen, Seat had already moved on after 1998, so in the early 2000:s a new series was introduced to let the wrc cars win a little easier on tarmac : The Super 2000 series, which unlike the F2 cars were 4wd, but still naturally aspirated, although they only revved to around 8000 rpm, had less aero and were heavier than the old F2 cars as well, they were still capable, but could not really beat the wrc cars anymore.

[@ExtraKawaii]

Ey, is not in da rules m8

[@RyTrapp0]

What I think is that every single fucking time ANY sanctioning body has passed "cost cutting" rules, they have completely & utterly failed at cutting ANY cost, often actually causing increases in expenditures. And, yet, to this day they STILL keep trying to "cut costs" via the rule book, as if it'll miraculously actually work THIS time... It's IMPOSSIBLE to keep money out of racing, you can only change where it's spent

[@orangelion03]

TW and TWR knew how to wring the most power out of a rule book =) I loved this era of BTCC. I built a couple dozen of the Project43 kit and half a dozen of the Tamiyas for customers back then. So cool.

[@violetLizard]

I love stories like this. Engineers have to use their ingenuity, creativity, and cunning to find a solution. And it leads to progress.

[@janibeg3247]

i had a Volvo 850 turbo for 22 years. It was a lot of fun.

[@pgtmr2713]

Awesome rule bending!. This is innovation and thinking outside the box.

[@thevolvobrickchallenge5650]

Finally the engineering to the TWR head is revealed to me... Brilliant!

[@davehigson9503]

They engineered there way around a problem to make themselves competitive, didn’t brake any rules just interpreted them in there own way! Every team on the grid was at in the 90’s

[@philmitchell9552]

Think the Alfa 155 and it’s BTCC history should be covered too especially with how it bent the rules with the adjustable spoiler

[@ChaosphereIX]

Agreed, it is a fascinating story. Their DTM development of the 155 is a good story too. Covered elsewhere by another KZbin channel...

[@ma61king]

Perfectly fine. I've also seen an instance where a head was actually redrilled to shift it over a few mm on the block to unshroud the intake valve slightly

[@ChaosphereIX]

Rule bending was standard at the time. Everyone was doing it to get a tiny bit of an advantage. Just look at Alfa using homologation rules to get their front and rear aero bits legal. 94 BTCC was one of the best most exciting seasons I ever saw, and is the reason I bought my Alfa 155.

[@TheRealBleach]

I wasn't from this time but I admit, this car is pretty good

[@MM-cr7dq]

That's racing - always has been and always will be - rule book engineering followed by actual, outstanding, engineering.

[@johanbjork1650]

I lived not that far from the Thruxton race track at the time and saw these cars in action on several occasions.

[@MarkWright1963]

Brilliant engineering and rule book bending

[@paulreynolds1510]

We used to do a wedge shaped skin on the cylinder head back in the days of racing the 4K Toyota starlet engine, There is close to the edge of roll bending on all motorsports

[@markbarlow4918]

100% using the rulebook to your advantage! Great engineering!

[@alfie3836]

That engine note sounds incredible!

[@Kent.]

Ohhh... nostalgic trip to the 850 era and BTCC when it was the best! Have all races on VHS.. but no VHS player... hehe!!

[@D5DRIFT]

Love this kind of rule bending , engineering genius. Legal by the rules, and a little bit cheeky too. :).

[@davidlaughman5358]

The real mods I need to know about. An extra 60 horsepower just by modifying the heads? YES PLEASE

[@notsofresh8563]

Half the reason for the head mods was for clearance for the HUGE cam they used. The lobes were way to big to fit in the factory heads. The other reason was to make the intake/exhaust runners flow better, in order to take advantage of the cam. Without the cam, the head mods are useless. Wouldn't be surprised if they played with the fuel as well. When they raced the 240s in the 80s, there was speculation they were using fuel that was up to 70% toluene to control detonation. This was in addition to water/meth injection. They ran a metric shit-tonne of boost. They got in trouble for the fuel and that year the factory stepped out of racing. The 850 was the next hurrah.

[@notsofresh8563]

And most of the claimed HP numbers are considered conservative. That head and cam with high boost was probably good for more like 150+hp,.

[@daltonbedore8396]

it isnt "modyfying the head" they liteeally completely replaced the upper half(the part with the cams and associated moving parts)... to the tune of $20,000 and up. you could swap nearly any production twin turbo i to your volvo for quite a bit less and be faster

[@notsofresh8563]

No way to fit 2 turbos. They moved the engine back a long ways in the car. The exhaust exits toward the firewall. Only room for 1 turbo. Plus the turbo and exhaust had to be homologated, as per the rules. It is possible to make higher peak power for sure. The question is how smooth is the power curve, and how drivable is the power. Turbo cars with a big hp but a peaky power curve can be a bear to drive. Here is a couple articles about the cylinder head and the choice of wagon, along with the homologation papers: www.supertouringregister.com/documents/model/32/

[@fontheking5]

Actually the Volvo 850 Super Touring car ( used in the BTCC ) did have a 2 liter naturally aspirated 5 cylinder engine, based on the Volvo 850 2.0. Turbos were not allowed in Super touring and all cars had to use 2 liter naturally aspirated engines. www.cyanracing.com/concept-cars/volvo-850-super-touring www.supertouringregister.com/regulations/

[@stantheheadhumongous9402]

It's like when lawyers become engineers.

[@Manic-172]

The art of engineering and rule reading

[@houseofboostdynotuning4346]

Racing has always been the one with the most money is likely to win, that's why i really like the young guys at the drags who race there daily driver, they seam to have more fun than most racers

[@benvickers2124]

Fair, studied the rules and played by them too

[@1320crusier]

creative. and it shows how tech rules generally just push cost up because they dont target the money specifically.

[@scottallen6970]

TWR's job was to win races. They interpreted the rule book and made an excellent race car. Good on TWR.

[@eknaap8800]

Top engineering at his best! I bow deeply...

[@felixsahlen1836]

I think it's just cool when people use cool tricks to come around the rules

[@zachnun7145]

Straight and to the point. good shit.

[@YellowPinkie]

Hearing that noise again, took me straight back to Brands Hatch and Silverstone. Halcyon days.

[@boss290gt4]

That’s brilliant. Someone needs to bring out a book of motorsports best rule “interpretations”

[@nothanksguy]

"We dont break rules, we make rules"

[@MotorsportMonkey]

More than fair, every motorsport engineers dream is to do something "within the rules" that gives you the edge above the competition. That is the point of it all. Like the early MK1 ford focus RS WRC car had its rear bumper filled with a charge chamber for the turbo that worked with the anti-lag system forcing per-charged and previously wasted compressed air back into the head between shifts or slow part throttle corners. Some call it genius some call it cheating!

[@jphillips360noscope]

LOVED these cars - best era of the btcc!!

[@Pillokun]

Oh, I miss the good old 90s BTCC, the races were so intence back then.

[@Grimm-Gaming]

Bending the rules is #1 Reason most of us like racing.

[@970357ers]

They approached the problem from a different angle.

[@brettmurphy3892]

I love the Volvo 850

[@cptfrecell]

I love the slight obsession CT has with Volvo

[@theuberindian3988]

Didn't you just pick this up, almost word-to-word from Stav Tech's Facebook post? Its nice and all to be making a video about this but you could do well to mention who pointed it out. Jalopnik did the same feature and readily accepted it was Stavros who found out about it by mentioning his FB post.

[@theuberindian3988]

Bobby Sn I'm not sure what you're trying to say mate.

[@notsofresh8563]

Meh, I personally posted about this topic at least 10 years ago on turbobricks.com. I have a pdf copy with translation of the swedish article from 20-25 years ago about it. Fact is none of the above gets credit for "discovering this"

[@theuberindian3988]

Thanks for the reply Notso Fresh. I couldn't find the link although I appreciate your efforts. I still feel it is not a co-incidence that Stav did a well researched piece on this a just few months back and Car Throttle literally copy-pasted his findings in video form. This is still fine if you ignore the fact that Car Throttle is "earning" from these videos while Stav gets nothing for his effort. That's the part that gets me.

[@notsofresh8563]

Here is a 10 year old article with way more detail and pictures of the real head next to a factory one: These guys made money off of their research too. They were a print magazine. And they actually interviewed the twr engineers. My bet is Stav used this article for his findings. Did Stav cite his sources? www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwjsxbrE2JTcAhWzHTQIHR-ECUYQFggqMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supertouringregister.com%2Fdocument%2F4%2F&usg=AOvVaw2xcnYSCXW2DJBmaSGUqU-5

[@theuberindian3988]

Notso Fresh Is this from Redline magazine?

[@gchampi2]

The really fun one was the Ford Mondeo V6's, where the team noted that the rules stated that the engine had to be in the same place as on the stock car when viewed in plan form (i.e from vertically above). The Result? Well, the road car had a driveshaft that ran under the engine. In the racing version, the same driveshaft ran between the cylinder heads...

[@joeogle7729]

I believe it was also Ford who spent £150,000 figuring out the best position to glue the windscreen wiper for optimum aero...

[@paulchristensen2854]

Stuff like this is an example of how an old Swedish submarine sank a US carrier 2?...3? times in war games some time ago. Using what you got....and thinking out side the box. Smart on so many levels. Of course it helps when you have money to burn when you start cooking up stuff like this

[@Prestonesfpv]

A true genius masters the grey areas

[@romulas-cushmanproject3273]

I actually like it when racing teams try and use loopholes when it comes to how the car performs, it lets the people who have more of a crafty mind more of an edge

[@eriktruchinskas3747]

Someone deserved a raise

[@N1RKW]

This is exactly the kind of clever innovation I like to hear about in racing. Too often you hear about draconian rules stamping out any kind of creativity and cleverness in the name of "fairness".

[@antoniosmith9262]

The same thing they do now in formula 1 and Indy car races!

[@shrimpycorn]

Rules have been bent like this ever since the first person lost a race. I love it

[@malcolmlane-ley2044]

The rules are there for people to innovate around what's not restricted

[@firdausahsin3898]

Brilliant... Worth every penny

[@hoonaticbloggs5402]

That’s racing. Any edge within the literal wording of the rules

[@chriscarr9171]

T5 was a great road car to have. Loved it.

[@phillipkerfoot2389]

that is brilliant not cheating.keep these rule bending vids coming love them ct.

[@mooneyes2k478]

In Sweden, generally known as the "T-Yellow", for a combination of three reasons. The famous yellow colour, the T in the name, and because Swedish chemistry company Kemetyl's T-series of fluids, named for colours, where red is denatured ethanol, blue is washer fluid, and yellow.....is grill-starter fluid, fitting since the car goes like it's on fire.

[@martinmoss7652]

Baldrick I’ve got a cunning plan !

[@Perry_dAccard]

This reminded me of something i've seen a while ago. A motorcycle parts dealer near me had cylinder heads for a Honda NR750 for sale. That's a crazy 32v V4 with oval pistons. The price was 11500€. Per head. Not including the camshafts, valves etc.

[@Pique147]

The golden era of BTCC.

[@teabagmcpick889]

This is what happens when you tell good engineers they can't do something. 10/10

[@1812MK]

Best BTCC back then when every make had cars in BTCC.

[@rud3y1]

King of the supertourers imo

[@roadwarrior144]

Very cunning indeed!

[@nitishk9]

They introduced new possibilities and loopholes to the Motorsport world, that's what's significant.

[@larry_ellison]

had to log in to freak the fuck out about this vehicle. are you kidding me, I'm in love with the race wagon. Skipping over the cost saving regulations and gaining approx. 70hp is CLASSIC racing logic. I need a race wagon series on TV, and I need it yesterday.

[@DavidWHarvy]

Similar to when I raced: Two bucket seats required: Greg Mildren turned up with a plastic bucket in lieu of the seat. There’s something called the spirit of racing. Neither of these conforms. Try it in daily life and you’ll see what I mean. 😺

[@nigeldepledge3790]

Volvo gave everyone a big surprise. Before we all saw what the 850 could do, we thought Volvo had misheard "touring car championship" as "towing car championship"...

[@richardfitzwell6579]

If it doesn't technically break the rules, then it's perfectly fine. Gray areas are meant to be exploited, and it's up to the sanctioning body to decide if those gray areas should be closed or not.

[@shaunmiller9369]

winning is everything

[@northernhedgehog6737]

This is not rule breaking Someone definitely listened in engineering class

[@adzyful]

What a note comes out of that car 🤤

[@Mikeb1001]

Motor racing has always been about reading between the lines of the rules to gain an advantage, just ask Colin Chapman

[@colinmunro7337]

Angle milling of cylinder heads was done eaisly as early as 1956,thanks drag racers!