91 White Turbo Spanish
Posted: Wed May 06, 2020 10:04 pm
Hello!
First of all, long time lurker around here. Started shortly after coming across a white 480ES for sale in someone’s front yard, 999€. I needed to know more. Your posts, your stories, the issues you’ve had and how you’ve sorted out things have become tremendously useful over time and I’m incredibly thankful you guys took (and take) the time to share it. Back to the car.
I’d already seen it as a young kid (born in 87), I remember seeing a white Turbo in Menorca and being amazed at all the gauges and general sleekness. One of my father’s cousins had a red Turbo in the 90s which I also had some memories of. Then it slipped out of my mind until I saw this one parked there. It just drew my attention like a house on fire. The general design (I studied product design), with all its quirks, the 2+2 seating, the rear hatch, the gauge clusters, on board computer? What was this thing? Early nineties? Went for a test drive and man, with a 1.7 NA engine that thing pulled. It had a weird exhaust manifold that looked custom. It also stuck to the ground like glue. Then I learnt Lotus laid out the suspension. I loved it, but I didn’t buy that one.
I'd heard about the Turbo version, how Volvo told Porsche they were being overly enthusiastic and un-Swedish about the intercooler.
It just felt like a personal statement no other car matched. A friend of mine put it perfectly: Instead of doing like other car companies, Volvo just made the concept car and stuck it in there with the sensible rest of the 400 series. Golf, yeah... They’re great cars but very common (in spite of the snobby name) and for a sporty hatchback, your man de Vries knocked it out of the park, like the Americans say. In the meantime, I drove an 89 Corsa GSI in white (Nova GTE in the UK, I think, 1.6 NA) which is a VERY fun little car, but very basic.
I kept searching for quite a long time, looking for a white Turbo. And then exactly the one I had in mind was in there with the rest of the bunch, a 91. And it was an hour’s drive from my father’s house, which I’d be visiting soon.
I just liked everything about it. It was white (I live in the Costa Blanca, very sunny here), it had a moonroof, the steering wheel was changed to a sportier one, but they'd kept the original centre for the horn. Someone had loved this car very much and taken good care of it.
But not as much as I would. My father and I went to Bilbao, where 2 brothers had bought it from the original owner, they had it in an underground car park in a city suburb. First impression was “Fuck that’s low.” They’d changed the springs, put some Direnza ones that lowered it 3cm. The place was old and not very well lit. I checked the ignition and saw the ECU was off, completely dark. I told the guy and he acted surprised. I started it and it idled very roughly, shook the whole car. I asked the guy to take it out of that old, damp and cramped place, into the sunlight.
So, my view was pretty skewed into the negative by the general state of neglect the car was in, they hadn't cleaned it or made it presentable in any way. I didn’t take it well. He let me drive and first thing I did was check if wipers on and reverse would start the rear wiper, which I knew (thanks to you guys) was a surefire way to check the car computer’s sanity. It passed the test. Moonroof went up, but not down. Kilometre counter wasn’t working either, hadn’t been for years apparently, before these guys bought it.
The car shook like crazy until it warmed up. After a while the ECU sort of woke up and the LCD started showing some figures, but only if you caught the light right. It seemed to work fine apart from that. How it drove? You could hear the turbo spooling like it was a jet engine, it was pretty radical. Not having anything to compare it to was not good in hindsight, as it had a manual boost control that hadn’t been done properly. It had no rust though.
I couldn’t help myself. I just wanted it. They asked 3500€ for it in the advert. I told him I considered it a stretch at 2000. He said he’d drive us back to our car. I asked him what his lowest would be and he said 2700. And I went for it. And it was mine.
Tanking up outside Bilbao.
In my dad’s garage.
I cleaned the interior, surprised at how good it looked after just a thorough vacuum, some scrubbing and some spray for vinyl. No cracks in the dash! Then took it for an oil change and a good look at the underside. All I saw was in great condition, someone had really looked after the drivetrain. Must have been the original owner, there were lots of invoices of part changes from him (many done at a Ford dealership). Brakes were almost new. The brothers had just changed the springs, spray painted them black to get past ITV (Spanish MOT), which they did surprisingly enough, and had done 6000km on it by their count.
I kept the visit short as a friend of mine and mechanic would be the one handling things. It drove the 850km back home like a champ, did two stages in order to not overstress it and bump into gremlins.
Back home, rear shocks were leaking so he changed those, spark plug cables, spark plugs, dizzy, belts, took out the half-assedly installed MBC. New set of 185/60 14” tires, it had been on 65 for some reason, and the gearbox hadn’t enjoyed that, it started shifting properly. eBay screwed me over a couple of times trying to get the halogen lightbulb for the dash computer, but I managed and got a whole lot more, everything lit up. Cleaned the idle valve and installed the 710N recirc valve (oh, it’s coming, rest assured). After all this, it just came back alive. I feed it 98 only, because it’s my precious. And the change it’s been through... It might be just 122hp, but every now and then they pull like they’re on crack.
Yep. Lost the cracked-on-both-sides front spoiler crossing a flash puddle on one of the mad rainy days we get here.
Computer working like a charm, so rewarding. Still hard to see with sunglasses on but you get what you can. Yeah, I put it all back together to realize I’d missed the green tinted plastic on the bottom counter. It's back on now, counting KMs as it should (thanks to you guys and shapeways).
Looks sick with the roof open.
What’s coming to this car? Many things. I intend on keeping it running for as long as I can. Current plans involve putting it on 16 inch OZ Crono wheels with 195 (it sure is a drinker so no more) and a set of spacers from H&R, although I’m not sure I’ll need them, depends how much the OZs push the tires out.
After getting it modded it’ll need the wider shoes, 185 probably isn’t enough for such boooosssst.
Aesthetically, I won’t touch it beyond this. No need, as I see it. I’m willing to go as far as buying a period-correct Philips stereo, I’ve got my eye on one in eBay. Later I’ve thought of adding a Raspberry Pi (computer) and a small touch screen in the top cubby hole in front of the gear lever, connect it to the stereo and run it through the car’s speaker system. Links to your phone, gets you some measure of call handling and navigation that doesn’t involve having your phone covering air vents or being a general nuisance. The bottom cubby fits my wallet, phone and garage remote too well to get rid of it, so the screen will be small. With a couple of USB ports on either side to mix music with pen drives. Can add cameras too, on the sides of the front number plate holder, it is a long bonnet.
Lately I got the LesJöfors springs. Mainly because they’re black and ITV guys won’t give me any heat. Soldered a contact on the VEM to get it working again and next up is fixing the a/c for this summer, I seem to have a broken compressor... Also, a K&N filter is on its way, if any of you are using it'd be good to know how much of a difference you experienced.
Sort out the kinks, improve it and keep it on the streets, for people to see what sensible Volvo went ahead and did during the 80s. That’s my goal.
Turning the engine around 90 degrees and mating it to a diff from an old 360 in the rear is something else that screams to be done, make it what they should’ve gone for in a 2+2 in spite of the 400 series layout. But that’ll be years from now, hopefully it’ll get that far.
Thanks and kind regards to all of you! You've made my experience much more easily digestible.
First of all, long time lurker around here. Started shortly after coming across a white 480ES for sale in someone’s front yard, 999€. I needed to know more. Your posts, your stories, the issues you’ve had and how you’ve sorted out things have become tremendously useful over time and I’m incredibly thankful you guys took (and take) the time to share it. Back to the car.
I’d already seen it as a young kid (born in 87), I remember seeing a white Turbo in Menorca and being amazed at all the gauges and general sleekness. One of my father’s cousins had a red Turbo in the 90s which I also had some memories of. Then it slipped out of my mind until I saw this one parked there. It just drew my attention like a house on fire. The general design (I studied product design), with all its quirks, the 2+2 seating, the rear hatch, the gauge clusters, on board computer? What was this thing? Early nineties? Went for a test drive and man, with a 1.7 NA engine that thing pulled. It had a weird exhaust manifold that looked custom. It also stuck to the ground like glue. Then I learnt Lotus laid out the suspension. I loved it, but I didn’t buy that one.
I'd heard about the Turbo version, how Volvo told Porsche they were being overly enthusiastic and un-Swedish about the intercooler.
It just felt like a personal statement no other car matched. A friend of mine put it perfectly: Instead of doing like other car companies, Volvo just made the concept car and stuck it in there with the sensible rest of the 400 series. Golf, yeah... They’re great cars but very common (in spite of the snobby name) and for a sporty hatchback, your man de Vries knocked it out of the park, like the Americans say. In the meantime, I drove an 89 Corsa GSI in white (Nova GTE in the UK, I think, 1.6 NA) which is a VERY fun little car, but very basic.
I kept searching for quite a long time, looking for a white Turbo. And then exactly the one I had in mind was in there with the rest of the bunch, a 91. And it was an hour’s drive from my father’s house, which I’d be visiting soon.
I just liked everything about it. It was white (I live in the Costa Blanca, very sunny here), it had a moonroof, the steering wheel was changed to a sportier one, but they'd kept the original centre for the horn. Someone had loved this car very much and taken good care of it.
But not as much as I would. My father and I went to Bilbao, where 2 brothers had bought it from the original owner, they had it in an underground car park in a city suburb. First impression was “Fuck that’s low.” They’d changed the springs, put some Direnza ones that lowered it 3cm. The place was old and not very well lit. I checked the ignition and saw the ECU was off, completely dark. I told the guy and he acted surprised. I started it and it idled very roughly, shook the whole car. I asked the guy to take it out of that old, damp and cramped place, into the sunlight.
So, my view was pretty skewed into the negative by the general state of neglect the car was in, they hadn't cleaned it or made it presentable in any way. I didn’t take it well. He let me drive and first thing I did was check if wipers on and reverse would start the rear wiper, which I knew (thanks to you guys) was a surefire way to check the car computer’s sanity. It passed the test. Moonroof went up, but not down. Kilometre counter wasn’t working either, hadn’t been for years apparently, before these guys bought it.
The car shook like crazy until it warmed up. After a while the ECU sort of woke up and the LCD started showing some figures, but only if you caught the light right. It seemed to work fine apart from that. How it drove? You could hear the turbo spooling like it was a jet engine, it was pretty radical. Not having anything to compare it to was not good in hindsight, as it had a manual boost control that hadn’t been done properly. It had no rust though.
I couldn’t help myself. I just wanted it. They asked 3500€ for it in the advert. I told him I considered it a stretch at 2000. He said he’d drive us back to our car. I asked him what his lowest would be and he said 2700. And I went for it. And it was mine.
Tanking up outside Bilbao.
In my dad’s garage.
I cleaned the interior, surprised at how good it looked after just a thorough vacuum, some scrubbing and some spray for vinyl. No cracks in the dash! Then took it for an oil change and a good look at the underside. All I saw was in great condition, someone had really looked after the drivetrain. Must have been the original owner, there were lots of invoices of part changes from him (many done at a Ford dealership). Brakes were almost new. The brothers had just changed the springs, spray painted them black to get past ITV (Spanish MOT), which they did surprisingly enough, and had done 6000km on it by their count.
I kept the visit short as a friend of mine and mechanic would be the one handling things. It drove the 850km back home like a champ, did two stages in order to not overstress it and bump into gremlins.
Back home, rear shocks were leaking so he changed those, spark plug cables, spark plugs, dizzy, belts, took out the half-assedly installed MBC. New set of 185/60 14” tires, it had been on 65 for some reason, and the gearbox hadn’t enjoyed that, it started shifting properly. eBay screwed me over a couple of times trying to get the halogen lightbulb for the dash computer, but I managed and got a whole lot more, everything lit up. Cleaned the idle valve and installed the 710N recirc valve (oh, it’s coming, rest assured). After all this, it just came back alive. I feed it 98 only, because it’s my precious. And the change it’s been through... It might be just 122hp, but every now and then they pull like they’re on crack.
Yep. Lost the cracked-on-both-sides front spoiler crossing a flash puddle on one of the mad rainy days we get here.
Computer working like a charm, so rewarding. Still hard to see with sunglasses on but you get what you can. Yeah, I put it all back together to realize I’d missed the green tinted plastic on the bottom counter. It's back on now, counting KMs as it should (thanks to you guys and shapeways).
Looks sick with the roof open.
What’s coming to this car? Many things. I intend on keeping it running for as long as I can. Current plans involve putting it on 16 inch OZ Crono wheels with 195 (it sure is a drinker so no more) and a set of spacers from H&R, although I’m not sure I’ll need them, depends how much the OZs push the tires out.
After getting it modded it’ll need the wider shoes, 185 probably isn’t enough for such boooosssst.
Aesthetically, I won’t touch it beyond this. No need, as I see it. I’m willing to go as far as buying a period-correct Philips stereo, I’ve got my eye on one in eBay. Later I’ve thought of adding a Raspberry Pi (computer) and a small touch screen in the top cubby hole in front of the gear lever, connect it to the stereo and run it through the car’s speaker system. Links to your phone, gets you some measure of call handling and navigation that doesn’t involve having your phone covering air vents or being a general nuisance. The bottom cubby fits my wallet, phone and garage remote too well to get rid of it, so the screen will be small. With a couple of USB ports on either side to mix music with pen drives. Can add cameras too, on the sides of the front number plate holder, it is a long bonnet.
Lately I got the LesJöfors springs. Mainly because they’re black and ITV guys won’t give me any heat. Soldered a contact on the VEM to get it working again and next up is fixing the a/c for this summer, I seem to have a broken compressor... Also, a K&N filter is on its way, if any of you are using it'd be good to know how much of a difference you experienced.
Sort out the kinks, improve it and keep it on the streets, for people to see what sensible Volvo went ahead and did during the 80s. That’s my goal.
Turning the engine around 90 degrees and mating it to a diff from an old 360 in the rear is something else that screams to be done, make it what they should’ve gone for in a 2+2 in spite of the 400 series layout. But that’ll be years from now, hopefully it’ll get that far.
Thanks and kind regards to all of you! You've made my experience much more easily digestible.