Group A Volvo 240 - Info and pics thread

[VolvoGroupA]

Hello Folks!

I had in mind to start a Volvo 240 Group A history thread here.

A thread to gather info and share pics about the good old sweet time of the Volvo 240 Group A.

Some info to read:
A car from the Group-A of ETC must be a four-seated car who atleast have been manufactured in minimum of 500 identical ex. The cars must be able to be used on a public road by ordinary people. Before these 500 evolution cars there must have been 5000 produced standard cars, with mean 5000 Volvo 240 Turbos.Volvo drove with a cylindervolume over 2100cc in the Group-A series which ment that Volvo could be driv?*ng up against cars with non-turbo and they could have up to a cylindervolume up to 3000cc, all according to the Group-A regulations. Some of these cars who drove in Group-A series was following: BMW 528i who later was replaced with BMW 635CSi, Jaguar XJ-S 12, Rover Vitesse V8, Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV V6, BMW e30 323i, Ford Sierra XR4 TI, Mercedes 190 2.3, Toyota Corolla GT, Alfa Romeo 75 V6, Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo, BMW e30 325i, Mazda 929 and Holden VK Commodore. Later in 1980´s came other cars like Nissan Skyline, Toyota Supra and BMW e30 M3. The BMW e30 M3 and Ford Sierra Cosworth came to rule in the series of Group-A.

European Touring Championship (ETC) according to the Group-A regulation, a BMW 635CSi and a Jaguar XJ-S or a Rover 3500 dragged the shortest straw. I know it sounds simple but in the end its the truth. As earlie as in the debut-race in 1984 season a Volvo 240 Turbo drove 100 of 150 laps in the lead.

1982 Volvo 242 made the debute in the ETC series wich started in 1963. It was Greger Pettersson, Anders Olofsson and Peggen Andersson, they took a modified Turbo Cup-car to England. During the practice the injectionengine broke and when no one was looking the carburetorengine was put into the car instead and we keept the fronthood closed. The team had to call it in anyway due to a broken exhaust pipe. In 1983 Thomas Lindström with Stanley Dickens and Per Stureson with Ingemar Persson droved on the seasonpreimere on Monza. Both this teams droved a selection of the competitions in the European Championships. But in the Tourist Trophy the same year, they started somewhat bigger. At that time it was premiere for the Evolution model of the Volvo 242 Turbo. A larger turbo, intercooler and a rearwing was the big changes. On spot four Volvo teams were present. Besides the already mentioned names like Greger Pettersson, Anders Olofsson and Peggen Andersson a Sportpromotion 242. And in a common car called the InfraPaint droved Robert Kvist and Börje Thor. None of the cars finished the race. However the InfraPaint Volvo qualified to a 9th place in a row of 20 cars totally in the strong division 3. For the Sportpromotion team the race ended already in the warmup before the qualifieing when the engine blew.

1984 Volvo started for real in the ETC-series. The next coming year 1985 Volvo won the Championships totally. Even in the 1986 season of ETC Volvo had good chance of winning the ETC if Tom Walkinshaw and his Rover didnt start to make problems for Volvo. According to him Volvo didnt drive according to the regulations. Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) disqualified´Volvo, because Volvo drove on unleaded 99 octane standardfuel on Anderstorp and on Zeltweg Volvo drove with an elegal fueltank and dashboard so two victories was taken from Volvo. But later it came to knowledge that the other teams drove with way to big engine. But FISA had an special interest in 1985 for Volvo. 240 Turbo was homologated 1983 for the american market. Fivehundred evolution cars was delivered, but the american authoritys never registrated the 240 Turbo cars. The FISA regulations was the reason why Volvo
pulled out of the 1986 championship two weeks after the last race on Estoril.



Im always in the pursuit of new info about the former Group A Volvos for my homepage, www.volvogrupp-a.se, the site is both avaible in Swedish and English. Anyone got something to contribute to the tread?

Best Regards
Björn, www.volvogrupp-a.se