Hi all,

I have just had an email from someone who wants to buy an R but stated

> I am based in Sydney an am looking at buying a 2nd hand '96 850R manual s/wagon with 46k on the

> clock. It is very straight, but I tested a '94 T5 sedan on the same day (auto) and it seemed

> noticeably quicker under hard acceleration... The dealer wants $38 000.00 for the 850 R and this

> power thing is the only real reservation I am having about parting with the cash. Do you know of any

>> places I may have the car independently given the once over (...etc)

I can help him with the info on specialists to sus the car out, but I was wondering whether any of you have thoughts on the matter. I thought that the R should definitely pack more wallop than an auto T-5.

thanks

Michael

(PS Those in America, don't freak out over the cost, it is $AUD!)

Thanks guys,

More than enough good information here to help our prospective fellow-Volvo-owner. Interesting how cars might vary based on history, climate, driving, etc.

And yannis, I imagine if that was not an AWD then things would have been even more devilish (- if posts that talk about how AWD slows you down a bit are correct.)

I notice day-to-day differences in performance. The ECU might

allow more boost given the fuel, temperature, etc. on any

given day as it tries to give you the max power available for

the given conditions. Disconnecting the battery for a bit (resets

the ECU) can also make the car faster for about 10 miles as

the ECU goes to default settings and then "re-tunes" to the

fuel, temp, etc. (the default settings are not at all conservative,

as far as I can tell, since my T5M is a rocket right after an ECU

reset).

The T5 could also have an aftermark ECU.

My other thought is a manually tranny may take a bit of experience

to learn how to drive it fast. Floor it at 2000 RPM and not much

happens. Downshift a gear (or two) and floor it and it takes off.

All things being equal, meaning that both cars are in about the same mechanical condition, the 850R should leave the T-5 automatic BEHIND! Especially if it is a non-US "R" model where they have 250HP rating. First gear, as Omni88 correctly pointed out below, is "regulated" so they should be about the same but the R in second and third gear (as a manual T-5 would also be) is going to be...devilish!

Manual R....wow...I have driven once a Black 1998 V70 R AWD manual, in Greece for about 350 miles...I am still trying to relive the...dream , what a "monster"!

Yannis

A thousand apologies, didn't read message properly... assumed T5-R vs R. If you talking about a std T5 then yeah, 225hp vs 250hp. Even allowing for wear and tear on either car, R should best T5. Again, it is trivial to reprogram a T5 to have similar engine map to T5-R/R so maybe it has been modded ?

Well, all things being equal, the MANUAL R has 10 hp more and about 20-30 Nm more torque. But, off the line in 1st gear they are regulated to 260 Nm in an attempt to maintain traction. Still, a perfect manual R should accelerate harder off the line by about 1/2 sec. Whether or not one would notice it seat of pants is moot though... And most people with some mechanical sympathy can reproduce factory auto figures more readily than sidestepping the clutch on a manual...

Whether either car still makes factory hp could be questioned, so a quick power run on a dyno could tell you quite a bit (find a reputable operator with big cooling fans or you'll risk some unpleasant explaining to do back at the dealers.)

also, it is quite possible the T5-R is not stock. I drove one a while back that had that characteristic "psst" from an external blow off valve - dead giveaway. Or they may have simply done the wastegate actuator mod so you don't make any more max boost but get there quicker by not initiating bleed off so soon. Makes the car feel quicker for sure.

Also, Fueltronics, Chip Torque, Powerchip et al all reprogram Turbo Volvos - so see if you can get the car by yourselves somewhere where you can check inside the ECU without upsetting the owner/dealer.