A Brief History Of The Volvo 850R...

What’s the best Volvo ever made? Or the craziest touring car? Well it’s the Volvo 850R of course! So what’s the history of this car? That is what we’re about to find out…

To start, we need to look at the 850 T-5 R. The year was 1995 and Volvo released the 850 T-5 R (the 850’s first performance variant). It was a 5 cylinder, limited run hit and this is what spawned the R. The popularity of the T-5 R gave Volvo the confidence to release the 850 R in 1996.

The 850R came out in 1996 and was released in a saloon and estate guises. Volvo decided there should be no direct predecessor of the T-5 R but because of how popular it was that there should be a mass production performance version. The R was in essence a T-5 R with some helpful improvements. The best improvement was the “Delta Link Semi-Independent Rear Suspension”. Basically, in simple terms: the rear suspension bushings compress in such a way that it gives the 850 R passive rear steering.

The Volvo 850 R had a 0-60 time of 6.5 seconds for the manual and 7.4 for the auto. It also had a top speed of 158 MPH (254 KM/H). 850 R production started in ‘96 and finished in 1997 with an estimated 6000 units produced throughout its lifetime. For a limited time in 1996 Volvo offered a heavy duty manual transmission with a LSD, redesigned turbo manifold, new turbo, new intercooler, new ECU, updated fuel pressure sensor and finally, a heavy duty clutch. All these modifications meant the manual cars developed 250 BHP and 260 LB-FT of torque. Sadly, if you lived in Italy you had to make due with a 2.0 850 R due to government legislation.

Well that was the history of the Volvo 850 R. If I missed anything let me know and I hope you enjoyed reading.
Thanks for reading!
-Denzloid-