I was wondering does anyoen knwo what i can do to increase my cars all around performance, HP, torque and throttle response? If I had 1000 dollars what could I do to increasethese thigns? thanks

yes , guys are right
dont spend money on a NA engine,i own a turbo and its so easy and inexpensive to gain HP ,,

Pretty mich out of luck. Not much available for performance since the
turbo models kind of keep the NA market from getting much development.
Maybe a performance driving school? Seriously, it would be a lot of fun
and the skills would transfer to any car you might own in the future.

KNN Filter
Exhaust system
big bore throttle body
polished manifold intake and exhaust

these already are around $2000 and you wont get more than 20HP

other than that sell car & buy a turbo, adding an turbo or superchrger or nitrous is not worth the headache. Plus if you buy a turbo and drop a chip in you can get 53 HP right off the start. then you add exhaust you can push hp to around 300. You wont see any much from 168 hp on the NA, ypu would have to spend around $4000-5000 to get that much power with a lot of headaches for that price you can just buy a turbo car.

Most folks will agrre with whjat I have said. I also have a NA. I probably will just buy a turbo car When I have the funds.

Good luck

I also have a question. Is the ECU in the 850's flashable? I saw this segment on flashable ecu's on "popular hotrodding tv" and it was mainly in regards to the reprograming of the domestic rigs to gain hp and they make some serrious gains by just reprogramming the computer. Why aren't there any tools like this for foreign rides?
Just a basic tip for performance is maintaince. Me and my buddy went next to each other on the highway his a 93 850 and mine a 96, i pulled away pretty quick, the only reason why i think i had the advantage was propper maintance. He really doesn't do it and i do (filter, plugs, oil changes, E/T/C)

If yours is a turbo you can adjust the wastegate.. I did mine and I am getting almost the same performance as sport mode previously. I will crank it down a turn because I put it in sport mode and it bogged slightly when I let go of the gas (I guess thats why the 3" downpipe comes into play)
But overall I think it was like 20hp more.

IPD/TME do ECU flashing for volvo. I believe the other popular volvo ecu upgrades incorporate soldering on a chip as opposed the flashing.
--
245GL 370,000km, 850R 5spd wagon :) 180,000km