At some point while reading websites about the Group A 240 Turbos from the 1983 model year, I came across a fairly in-depth writeup of the modifications made specifically to Volvo's actual racing cars, not to the 500 "homologation" models. The changes included things like special lightweight plastic or aluminum parts for the car, acid-dipping sections of it, and a lot of other changes, nearly all weight-reducing.

The website made it clear that the racing editions of the 240 had none of the luxuries of the flathoods--power windows, antenna, seat heaters, special trim, etc. I don't know exactly what options the flathoods have, but I know that all together they would be a lot heavier than the racing 240s Volvo used.

The website also hinted something about "another" edition of the turbos--a group of turbos that were bare-bones, arriving with no options and not heavily promoted by the dealers. The author might have referred to them as "budget" or "entry-level" turbos; I can't recall correctly, but the point is that these cars were not "loaded" and thus were not highlighted in any way for buyers.

However, these discreet turboed 240s also were supposed to have the true racing engines, perhaps throttled back a little, but with the same components as the cars that Volvo ran--presumably a capable mechanic could tune them back to the racing specs.

Is there any truth to these rumors? Was there a second, lower-trim level line of turbos with hot engines brought to the States in 1983/4 alongside the flashy and fully-equipped "Group A" homologated cars?

Unfortunately, I can't recall the website where I read this stuff, but the "does this make sense" test kind of checks out. The Group A flathoods, truly unique cars in their own rights, wouldn't be an exact copy of the racing cars Volvo used; I don't know whether ETCC regulations require them to be or not. If the rules *did* demand exact copies, then that would mean that Volvo would be forced to import fast cars without good factory options available to the buyer--the racing cars don't need power windows, for example, and who wants a baseline 240 if they're already spending extra for a turbo?

Still, though the page contained a lot of legitimate and useful information, I'm still quite skeptical. It's wishful thinking to hope there was some "hidden" line of super-fast, special-Group A 240s that were buit. However, I would think that any sort of additional select edition would have been discovered in the twenty years these cars would have existed, even if only 500 of these other special cars were produced.

Useful links:
Volvo 200.org's Group A page
1983 242 Group-A turbo SE flathood page
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'89 244 GL -- 105,411 miles (see profile for info on car)